EUR/USD Waiting for Politicians to Respond

This morning the EUR/USD rate is lower than it was a week ago – i.e. 140.50 against 142 a week ago. The debt challenges set the agenda in Europe as well as in the US. We expect that this will also be the case this week. The stress test of the banks held no big surprises, but nevertheless the market opens in a sour tone, since uncertainty prevails on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe impatient financial market participants are waiting for a co-ordinated plan from the politicians and the ECB as to how to solve the debt crisis and the banks’ problems. An EU summit is scheduled for Thursday, which will hopefully be fruitful. Time will show whether it will be a repurchase, a restructuring or a combination. As long as nothing happens, uncertainty grows, and the euro is adversely affected.

The US is struggling with its public finances. Last week Moody’s and S&P warned about early downgrades of the US credit rating, unless an agreement is made to stabilise the ratio between debt and GDP for the medium term. Initially we are looking forward to Friday when Obama will hopefully manage to reach a political agreement. In the event of a downgrade, it is doubtful to what degree the US dollar will actually be adversely affected. This is based on the thought that the US dollar will still act as a safe-haven despite a slightly lower credit rating.

Overnight the EUR/CHF rate set a low at 113.74, but this morning the rate has returned to the level around 114.20. The SNB is coming under pressure, which is reflected in the fact that Swiss enterprises are considering the possibility of paying wages and salaries in the euro. The downtrend is intact, and the next test is the support level at 113.65.


EUR/USD (SELL): The EUR/USD trend is down.          
EUR/CHF (NEUTRAL): New low. New points of support. 112.50 and 110.00.   
EUR/GBP (NEUTRAL): EUR/GBP has fallen further to 87.30. We maintain our NEUTRAL recommendation but we are waiting for 86-86.50 for a Buy recommendation, if any.