European Central Bank

The single currency has rallied against the Pound and Dollar, helped by supportive comments from council members of the European Central Bank.

Euro exchange rates were softer in midweek trade and faced a challenging outlook after the ECB's Lagarde sent markets a clear message that they were wrong to expect interest rate rises as soon as 2022.

The Euro rate got little help from October’s ECB monetary policy decisions and struggled to compete with a Dollar that has benefited from the prospect of a further shift in stance at an almost-hawkish Fed.

"The move smacks of some of the ECB hawks trying to open up the debate on monetary normalisation"

EUR/USD attempted to draw a line under a hat-trick of losses but was struggling for momentum on Thursday after the ECB reduced slightly the pace of bond purchases under one of its quantitative easing programmes and hinted that a further reduction could come in December.

Those betting on a stronger Euro against the Pound were left disappointed after the European Central Bank (ECB) met expectations and said it would lower the pace of its pandemic era quantitative easing programme.

The Euro-Dollar rate saw only a tepid rebound on Thursday as the Euro lagged other comparable currencies in capitalising on widespread declines by Dollar following new ‘dovish’ guidance from the European Central Bank (ECB), which confirmed that an age of near-zero interest rates continues to loom over the path ahead for the Eurozone.

Pound Sterling's recovery against the Euro gathered momentum in the wake of the European Central Bank's July policy update.

"Continued dovishness from the ECB will pave the way for increased policy divergence in the near-term and weigh on the Euro."

The European Central Bank’s new inflation-targeting strategy could lead to an even more protracted period of quantitative easing (QE) than has previously been anticipated by economists and is similar in its market implications to that of the Federal Reserve (Fed), although the strategy could be better understood as a reflection of the ECB having learned from the mistakes of the past rather than as a response other central banks’ policies.

The Euro was seen bid against most major currencies in the wake of headlines concerning the outlook for European Central Bank policy.

Euro exchange rates could find some life on Thursday's policy meeting at the European Central Bank which will offer some key guidance as to where Eurozone monetary policy is heading over coming months.

The Euro-Dollar exchange rate briefly led a resurgence of the single currency complex Thursday in an apparent response to the April monetary policy statement of European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, whose words conveyed a creeping sense of cautious optimism.

The Euro-to-Dollar exchange rate entered the new week with the 1.20 level and above in its crosshairs, although could be set to cool its heels ahead of Thursday’s European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy decision.

The Euro was seen trading higher mid-week with analysts saying at least some of the gains can be attributed to a member of the European Central Bank saying emergency measures introduced to deal with the pandemic could be fazed out as soon as September.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is increasingly likely cut interest rates in the near future says a major European lender and investment bank, a move that would only widen the gulf on interest rate policy with the Federal Reserve and pressuring the Euro lower against the Dollar in the process.

The Euro-to-Dollar exchange rate remained above the 1.19 handle and in the black for the session on Thursday after being neither shaken nor stirred by a European Central Bank (ECB) commitment to be more flexible in its government bond purchases so as to limit the economic impact of upward pressure on yields. 

The European Central Bank faces a reckoning with bond markets say analysts at French investment bank Natixis who argue in a new client briefing that it will have to send a strong message to markets next week.

The Euro-Dollar rate rose handsomely, leading Europe's unified unit to top the board among major currencies on Thursday for the first time in more than a month, though thanks to a steamrolling rally by Pound Sterling, EUR/USD may now have sustainable upside ahead of it. 

The Euro-Dollar rate has been range-trading since January's near-unravelling below the landmark 1.20 level but could break in either direction over the coming months, according to BofA Global Research and ING, whose forecasts tell a story of competing scenarios for 2021 outcomes from here.