ECB Meeting Fails To Bother The Euro

 | Oct 29, 2021 07:33AM ET

The European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting has become a high-impact event for the financial world and the forex market.

The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (BoE) have already announced the timelines for tightening their monetary policies. So, everyone expected the European regulator to follow suit. Such hawkish statements should have reinforced the euro. Indeed, the euro logged notable growth yesterday.

If the ECB had made hawkish statements, the euro would have strengthened to a greater degree. If we read the ECB policy statement carefully, we will find the exact wording as the previous wrap-up following Sept. 9.

In other words, the ECB stands pat on all monetary policy settings. This outcome should have produced a bearish effect on the euro. All in all, the euro's advance is in no way related to the ECB policy decisions.

The reason behind the euro's strength was the US macroeconomic statistics that were published in parallel to Christine Lagarde's press conference. The flash estimate of the US GDP for Q3 2021 was much worse than expected. The US economic growth slowed to 4.9% from 12.2%.

Besides, the national economic output grew a modest 2.0% in Q3 sequentially, whereas analysts had projected a 2.7% increase. A series of indirect economic metrics published monthly provides some clues that the US economy is picking up steam vigorously. However, the new GDP data revealed that the market overestimated the actual economic recovery.

Investors have been too optimistic about the US dollar for the last two months. In light of the GDP report, they urgently revised sentiment that dented the greenback's strength. However, the US currency found some support from the better-than-expected weekly update on unemployment claims.

In particular, the number of initial jobless claims contracted 10,000 last week versus 6,000 in the forecast. Above all else, the number of continuing unemployment applications decreased 237,000, much more robust than 160,000 in the consensus.