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EUR: euro barely reacts to weekend’s big news stories

By Smart Currency November 22nd, 2016

Yesterday saw a small amount of lower-impact data – Greece, Spain and Belgium all released economic information. The main news, however, happened over the weekend, in both Germany and France. Angela Merkel announced she would run for a fourth term as Germany’s Chancellor and Nicholas Sarkozy failed to be (re)named the French Republican party’s presidential candidate.

The euro rose (ever so) slightly against the dollar, but weakened significantly against the pound as investor sentiment on sterling switched.

No major data or events coming up today. Finish unemployment and European consumer confidence are the only data releases of note, alongside bond sales in Germany and Spain.

Markets will soon focus their attention on the referendum on political reform in Italy on 4th December, and the French and German elections next year. Any gains for the populists (Marie Le Penn in France, Bepe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy and the far-right AfD in Germany) would likely cause weakness in the euro and the Eurozone as a whole.