ECB’s Draghi Inspires Global Markets Rally

By Chris Gore | July 26 2012 9:15 PM

The Euro's south-bound trajectory took swift about-turn overnight, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi vowed "to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro." Speaking at an investment conference in London, Draghi reiterated the ECB's commitment to save the union, pledging "within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough." Draghi's fightin' words inspired a significant bounce across the risk spectrum with the Euro recording significant gains. Initial upside created a key inflection point with those short and caught subsequently squeezed out the market, while stop entries also exacerbated the upside. The EURUSD pair rose to highs of 1.2330 throughout the session from levels around the 1.2135 mark before Draghi's speech hit the wires.

Mario Draghi is the head of the European Central Bank (Reuters)

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Across the channel, sterling made a comeback after an early week slump, with Cable making a three big-figure leap over the session to session highs of 1.5725. Solid gains were also noted across the commodity bloc with the Kiwi outpacing the Aussie dollar while the CAD lagged behind. The Aussie dollar made a break through 104-figure to highs of 104.25 before consolidating gains just below the figure.

Mario's Draghi's comments resonated across the globe with U.S markets running with Europe's positive lead. Still, until concrete steps are taken, there's little more to suggest today's Draghi-Euphoria is tentative at best, with markets now in high expectancy mode in anticipation the ECB will soon begin the task of stripping down the borrowing costs of Europe's most endangered economies. Nonetheless, bond yields across Europe's periphery record sharp falls overnight with Spanish 10-year yields falling back below the 7 percent region while a well-attended Italian bond auction also helped aided relief.

The local day ahead will see the release of China's leading index and Industrial profits for June which may induce some short-term noise on the Australian dollar. Apart from the constant stream of Eurocentric headlines guiding FX trends, market participants will now turn to the release of U.S GDP which will no doubt drive stimulus expectations, and by default the U.S dollar and it's counterparts. Recent weeks have seen growth concerns from the U.S lead to a notable shift in stimulus expectations, in turn providing intermittent headwinds for the U.S dollar. Gross Domestic Product is expected to record annual growth of 1.4 percent from a previous 1.9 percent, while personal consumption data accompanying the release is expected to slide to 1.4 percent in the second quarter, from previous growth of 2.5 percent. At the time of writing the Aussie dollar is buying 104 US cents.

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