Euro Under Pressure Until The ECB Meeting

Today, stocks opened down in Europe. A rise in political tensions brought about by North Korea’s nuclear test triggered a retreat towards safe haven assets and a bump in the price of gold to 1340 USD. The US dollar fell against the Swiss franc to 0.9554, and against the yen to 109.38. The euro/dollar pair has recovered to 1.1922.

Traders were already aware of the threats directed towards North Korea on Tuesday, the 29th of August after they launched a ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. If the US limits itself to purely verbal threats this time, the dollar should recover its position by the end of the week.

The euro is consolidating at 1.1900. The main news item this week will be the ECB meeting on monetary policy. After the meeting, Mario Draghi, the head of the European regulator, will give a press conference in which he might give an indication as to how he expects the euro to perform for the rest of the year. Technically, the pair looks set to break 1.1860. When the price returns to 1.1818, there will be an increased risk of falling to 1.17.