020 7898 0500The single currency made large gains against both sterling and the US dollar yesterday. Both currencies are suffering from political uncertainty.
Brexit and political leadership battles have turned investors away from sterling. Meanwhile, the ongoing Donald Trump and Russia saga continues. Yesterday, the big political news piece was that Donald Trump’s son released an email chain. The email chain offered ‘sensitive’ information on Hillary Clinton by a Russian national.
In addition, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Harker stated that the recent slowing of inflation has made him think about whether the central bank should indeed raise its benchmark interest rate for a third time this year. It’s key to note here that Harker was previously seen as an interest rate hawk, someone strongly favouring more hikes, but even he is now taking a more neutral stance.
As a result of the combination of events, we saw the appetite for US dollars decline and the euro was the main beneficiary.
In terms of economic data today, it is fairly quiet, with only the German industrial production data released.
