The euro continues to weaken in relation to its peers during early Thursday trading as investors position themselves ahead of today’s European Central Bank meeting. The coronavirus is once again dominating headlines with the second wave of the pandemic advancing across Europe, forcing Germany and France – the continent’s two largest economies – to announce new national lockdowns. Taking into account the likely negative impact these winter lockdowns will have in an already weakened eurozone economy, many in the markets believe that later today the ECB will announce additional stimulus measures and increase the cautious emphasis of its forward guidance. Should such predictions materialise, we can expect further short term single currency weakness.
Most European benchmarks opened higher on Thursday, paring some of yesterday’s losses, as market sentiment gets a fresh boost from the corporate sector. Strong earnings reports from major companies like ASM International NV or Royal Dutch Shell have managed to reassure investors, temporarily at least, ahead of another busy day. There is also a possibility that investors are already betting on more dovish measures, in the shape of further monetary stimulus from the ECB meeting today, as Christine Lagarde may provide the Eurozone with more support following renewed lockdowns in the biggest economies. Of course, traders will also pay close attention to the US GDP data for the third quarter, as well as to a large new batch of corporate news, especially in the tech sector, with Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify reporting results today. Today’s light rebound is mainly driven by real estate and tech shares while the Stoxx-50 index, still impacted by this week’s bullish pressure, is struggling to stay above the 2,945 pts very-short-term support level.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
