9 September, 2016

 After an uneventful day on Wednesday, we did see somewhat more action in Thursday’s session, as the precious group staged a modest retreat after the sharp gain earlier in the week. The downside move was somewhat surprising given what we saw come out of the ECB on Thursday. In its policy meeting, the bank kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, but refrained from announcing any new stimulus past its March 2017 deadline. ECB chief Mario Draghi noted that declines in interest rates into negative territory had “clearly” made implementation of further asset purchases “more difficult” although he did not rule out further easing, perhaps in a somewhat different form beyond next March. At first, the Euro gained ground on the news given that the statement was interpreted to be on the hawkish side, but the gains did not last as a bout of short covering set in to see the dollar ending slightly higher against most major currencies.