EUR: A clean negative – ING

The growing prospect of a global trade war and tariffs heading towards the EU is a clean euro negative, ING’s FX analysts Chris Turner notes.

There is now an upside gap to 1.0350

“Those important two-year EUR:USD rate differentials have widened around 20bp over the last couple of sessions as investors price less easing from the Fed and more easing from the European Central Bank. This plus the increased risk premium for a global trade war saw EUR/USD touch a new cycle low of 1.0140 in early Asia.”

“There is now an upside gap to 1.0350, but that only gets filled if there is some rapprochement in North America today or equities fall hard enough to prompt some wide-scale deleveraging of positions to a market very long the dollar already.”

“Presumably tough talk from Europe that it will not be pushed around will be seen as a euro negative. And as above, the threat of a major report in April to justify US universal tariffs will see investors retain a sell-rally mindset in EUR/USD.”