European Central Bank

After a kneejerk move lower in the Euro, tumbling briefly as low as 1.1930 when Mario Draghi made an explicit reference to the strength of the Euro in his prepared remarks, stating that "the recent volatility in the exchange rate represents a source of uncertainty which requires monitoring with regard to its possible implications for the medium-term outlook for price stability", the EURUSD has since surged more than 100 pips, and was up to 1.2050, nearing the 2017 high of 1.2070 during the Q&A part of today's press conference which has been dubbed "pret

S&P futures are flat, still spooked by the WSJ's report that Gary Cohn will not be the next Fed chair, while both European stocks and Asian shares gain in a overnight session on edge in which everyone is looking forward to today's main risk event: the ECB meeting and Draghi press conference due in under two hours. The dollar continued to weaken against most G-10 peers as tensions over North Korea, concerns over Stan Fischer's resignation and the increasingly cloudy Fed outlook outweighed positive sentiment from the US debt ceiling extension.

After a barrage of media trial balloons (as recently as today) meant to temper the enthusiasm of Euro bulls now that the EURUSD is back to 1.20 and threatening European corporate profitability, Mario Draghi's Sintra hawkishness is a distant memory.

Last week Reuters provided the outlet for leaked comments from The ECB (regarding QE) that sparked chaos in EURUSD. This week it is Bloomber who reports sources suggesting The ECB will cut inflation outlooks (pouring cold water on Draghi's "reflationary forces" hoopla) and seemingly confirming The ECB will kick the can on the decision to taper QE into 2018.

The head of Germany’s largest commercial bank warned of the fallout from cheap money, cautioning against using the strong euro as a justification for printing more.

Bloomberg reports that the Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer John Cryan called for an end to the era of cheap money in Europe, saying that the prolonged period of rock-bottom interest rates is starting to inflate asset bubbles and putting the bank at a disadvantage to U.S. rivals.