Euro Rises Ahead of Optimism in Trade Talks

In the news this week is the report filtering in about the progress made in US-China trade talks over the weekend. Reports indicate a video conferencing between top US trade officials and a Chinese top government official over the weekend. Though the details of the conference call are yet to be finalized, this has sparked up hopes in investors propping up the Euro, undermining the safe havens.

At the time of this report, the euro edged higher than 1.1072 versus the USD while consolidating its gains. The trade war which had lasted close to 16 months had both countries slapping tariffs on their respective goods. Reports, however, came in a few weeks ago that both countries were nearing a preliminary phase agreement. The progress seemed to be made in the trade talks was stalled as US President revealed it wasn’t removing some punitive tariffs. Investors were unsure of when the preliminary deal will be signed as China needed a bit of reassurance.

On Friday, the US commerce secretary made optimistic remarks while over the weekend, reports came in of a constructive talk between US-China top officials. Though the final decision by the US president, Donald Trump is yet to be heard, investors eagerly await the President’s tweet later in the day.

One question for sure on the mind of investors is if the President is willing to remove the extra tariffs? Also because of the December 15 deadline posed by the US for the preliminary phase agreement to be reached, in which Trump had threatened increased tariffs if it fails is an item to consider in which it seems that the United States stance still holds steady.

Also in the market highlights for this week is central bank activity.

Central Bank Activity
A top official of the Federal Reserve has reiterated that the Fed’s decision to hold steady its interest rate cut after embarking on a three-time cut this year is supportive of the US economy. Later on this week, minutes of a follow-up meeting to explain the Fed’s monetary stance will be released.

Also this week, speeches from ECB top officials are on. Those to influence the market will most likely be Luis de Guindos who is currently serving as the Vice president and Phillip lane who is the Chief economist. Most likely the subject of discussion will be a clarion call to the governing bodies to cover more grounds.

In the news last week, Germany barely escaped a recession, therefore it is expected that fiscal decisions may hold steady in light of this.