Eurogroup give Greece a nudge woes continue for EUR

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day in the market with little data of note released, with the main focus on the Eurogroup meeting. Following the meeting the main piece of news that was announced was that the Eurogroup have said discussions on Greece are over and it is now time to make progress. This would suggest that essentially Greece have been given the signal to push on with any reforms and to stop wasting time. So with relatively little major news from the meet the markets equally did little in the way of reacting, perhaps largely as this has already been priced in to the market.

Throughout the day’s trading the Euro lost ¾ of a cent against the pound setting once again a new recent high and was aided by poor trade balance and import/export data from Germany in the morning, both of which showed contractions.

EUR/USD was up and down throughout the day within around a cents range – initially we saw US Dollar weaken (likely a correction from last week’s gains) but following the poor data morning data from the Eurozone strengthened back and by the end of the day had returned to the trading levels seen at open. Similarly against Sterling the US Dollar also started to lose ground in the morning but unlike Euro with no poor releases for Sterling to balance the loss through the day USD>GBP lost around ¾ of a cent.

Elsewhere poor housing starts data for Canadian Dollar – down to 156.3k from a predicted 179k – spelt weakness for the Canadian Dollar which lost ground across the board, notably almost a cent against Sterling.

Today will likely be a more turbulent day as we have a raft of low level releases from the Eurozone in the morning, and in the afternoon similar from the U.S, with Bank of England Mark Carney also talking in the afternoon which provides the main focus for the day. The question must be asked – can GBP>EUR rates continue to improve and will the upcoming election have any impact?

If you have any upcoming requirements stay in close contact with your Currency Index account manager who can keep you advised in any sudden shifts and so can help you get the most out of your transfer.