The central bank marathon comes to an end

This is what you need to know to operate the Friday, December 17:

Following the announcement by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank have announced their monetary policy decisions, and with the exception of the SNB, all of them announced tighter monetary policies.

The European Central Bank announced a cautious adjustment more or less in line with market expectations. The ECB kept rates unchanged and confirmed that the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program will end in March 2022. The Governing Council also decided to expand its Asset Purchase Program to 40,000 million euros per month in the second quarter and 30,000 million in the third quarter, to partially offset the end of the monthly bond purchase of € 60 billion through the PEPP

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England voted by 8-1 majority to increase benchmark rate to 0.25% and by a 9-0 majority to keep the quantitative easing amount at 895 billion pounds.

The SNB maintained its expansionary monetary policy to ensure price stability and support the local economy in its recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Maintains the SNB policy rate and interest on demand deposits at −0.75%.

A note of color, the Turkey’s central bank cut its main interest rate to 14% from 15%, pushing TRY to a new all-time low of 15.74.

The pair EUR/USD peaked at 1.3360, while the GBP/USD reached 1.3374. Both fell back during the American session, settling at 1.1320 and 1.3310 respectively. The pair AUD/USD it trades around 0.7180 below the 0.7220 region. The Australian dollar benefited from upbeat local employment figures. The pair USD / CAD dropped to 1.2780.

Finally, the pair USD/JPY it is trading at 113.70 ahead of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision, widely expected to remain unchanged.

The oro it was one of the best performers, advancing for the second day in a row and currently trading around $ 1,795 a troy ounce. Crude prices also rose, with a barrel of WTI currently trading at $ 72.50.

European indices posted substantial gains, but Wall Street couldn’t follow suit and is trading mixed. US Treasury yields spent the day consolidating, showing little reaction to the news from central banks.

Meanwhile, Several countries continue to report record cases of coronavirus infections, related to the Omicron variant. Tighter measures are being imposed in places like the UK and South Korea, to try to curb the spread and prevent the collapse of healthcare systems.

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