The Euro has risen by 0.2% against the US Dollar on a relatively quiet data day. The latest support for the Euro has been Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has been optimistic about resolving Greece’s current debt problems.
On the US side, confidence in Donald Trump has hit a fresh low as his claims of wiretapping are debated in congress.
- EUR USD trades up at 1.07 – USD EUR rate dips to 0.92
- Euro advances on Greek debt optimism – Dutch confidence rises in March
- US Dollar slides on investigation into 2016 election – Trump’s tapping comments come under scrutiny
- Euro uncertainty ahead on ECB bulletin – Spate of Fed speeches could boost USD
On a fairly slow start to the week, the Euro’s gains against the US Dollar mainly come from small but positive developments in the Eurozone. Opening off this EUR advance was the Dutch consumer confidence result for March, which rose from 14 points to 16.
The more impactful news has been that Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has been positive about wrapping up talks with international creditors over the current Greek bailout.
According to President of the Greek Tourism Confederation Andreas Andreadis;
‘[Tsipras] is very optimistic the review will be concluded’.
Throwing a little rain on this parade, however, has been Slovakian Finance Minister Peter Kazimir;
‘It looks like Greece Groundhog Day today. We’ll sit down, get updates, and teams will return to Athens trying to work things out’.
This outlook implies that efforts to break the cycle of debt and bailing out are not likely to end soon, something that would damage opinions on the Greek economy and by extension weaken the Euro.
The US Dollar’s poor trading against the Euro today has come from widespread uncertainty about the President, Donald Trump.
On the back of hitting a new low in approval ratings at 37%, Trump had been in the headlines due to a now-official FBI investigation about ‘the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump [election] campaign and the Russian government’, according to DBI Director James Comey.
This has further eroded confidence in the embattled Trump administration and held the US Dollar back by extension.
The next major source of Euro movement is likely to be Wednesday’s European Central Bank (ECB) economic bulletin, which may lessen Euro demand if the ECB sound cautious about the Greek debt situation.
The US Dollar stands to recover both today and over the course of Tuesday with a series of Federal Reserve speeches scheduled.
Among the notable speakers will be Charles Evans today and William Dudley on Tuesday, both of whom are voting members of the Fed in 2017.
If the US Dollar is to restore itself, hawkish comments are needed from the Fed officials that would point towards an interest rate hike coming in May.
Current EUR USD Interbank Exchange Rates
At the time of writing, the Euro to US Dollar (EUR USD) exchange rate was trading at 1.07 and the US Dollar to Euro (USD EUR) exchange rate was trading at 0.92.
