The Euro gained ground versus the US Dollar in the wake of a weekend that included a relatively fruitless effort to pin down a presidential candidate for France’s leftist unity party. On Friday, cooperative talks among two of France’s left-leaning parties tended to support the Yen and weaken the common currency. Analysts believe that a mash-up of those parties would have no real positive outcome, either backfiring and putting he far-right into power or else succeeding and having economic policies in place that were not realistic.
As reported at 10:40 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.0622, up 0.09%; the pair had earlier hit a high of $1.0633 in the session, while the low was established at $1.0604. The EUR/JPY was up 0.3422% to trade at 120.2316 Yen; today’s range for the pair began with the low of 119.66 Yen and rose to a high of 120.3000 Yen. The EUR/GBP was down 0.38% to trade at 0.8525 Pence, close to the session trough set at 0.8513 while the high was at 0.85578 Pence.
Markets Await Trump Outlook
US markets are closed today for the President’s Day holiday, but markets are focusing ahead toward the US State of the Union address to be given by President Trump next week. Many believe it will be crucial to encourage capital repatriation. Presently, FX traders are concerned over the Trump administration’s rhetoric which has had a decidedly protectionist bent. Trump has done little thus far to suggest that his campaign promise of increased spending to improve infrastructure is going to be kept. The many missteps of the Trump administration in his three weeks of office have kept investors wary.