The ECB minutes give the EUR a boost. While risks remain tilted to the downside, there was an optimistic tone to the minutes.
It’s been a quiet start to the European session, with no stats for the markets to consider early on.
This afternoon, however, the ECB minutes drew attention ahead of consumer confidence figures due out later in the day.
The minutes from the late January meeting painted a relatively optimistic outlook on what lies ahead.
Salient points from the minutes included:
The EUR got a boost in response to the minutes, rising from a pre-release $1.20624 to a post-release high and current day high $1.20849.
At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.41% to $1.20837.
For the European majors, the DAX30 held onto gains following the release. The CAC40 and the EuroStoxx600 continued to struggle.
At the time of writing, the DAX30 was up by 0.28%. The CAC40 and EuroStoxx600 were down by 0.14% and by 0.12% respectively, however.
With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.