It took a while but the euro finally decided it wasn’t particularly happy with what the ECB said this Thursday, despite a notable tweak to the central bank’s message.
Initially things were looking good for the single currency. The ECB dropped its ‘easing bias’ in its latest statement, exorcising any mention of increasing its bond buying, while admittedly keeping its promise to extend the programme if needed. This news caused the euro to shoot up, only for it to sink back into the red by the end of Draghi’s typically dovish press conference, slipping 0.4% against the dollar and 0.1% against the pound, in part hurt by a downward revision to 2019’s inflation forecasts.
The lack of properly hawkish sentiment helped the eurozone indices more than it hurt the euro. The DAX rose 0.9%, soaring back across 12350 in the process, while the CAC managed an impressive 1.3% increase, taking the French bourse to a one week peak.
Of course all this movement isn’t just down to the ECB. The fact that Donald Trump has oh-so-slightly softened his stance on trade tariffs – though the market will get more info on that after the day’s meeting at the White House – sent the Dow Jones 0.3% higher after the bell rang on Wall Street.
As for the FTSE, without any news of its own to deal with the index was free to join in with everyone else’s growth, its 0.6% increase leaves it tickling 7200 and therefore a 7 day high.
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