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The Pound to Euro exchange rate fell after the U.S. President won a reprieve for his tariffs.
The Euro was bid against the Dollar and British Pound after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily reinstated President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, which had been blocked a day earlier by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT).
The CIT ruled that former President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The court found that the economic concerns cited did not meet the "unusual and extraordinary threat" threshold required by IEEPA, and thus, the tariffs were deemed unlawful.
The decision gave hope that economic damage wrought by tariffs would be minimised, which boosted the Dollar and stocks. The Pound-Euro exchange rate - which tends to rise when optimism grows - rose to a new multi-week high at 1.1965.
However, the Euro soon recovered against most G10 currency peers, including Pound Sterling and the Dollar, after the Court of Appeals granted an emergency motion from the Trump administration arguing that a halt is "critical for the country’s national security".
"There was a brief glimmer of hope that U.S. courts might overturn the US government's tariff policy. The resulting recovery of the US dollar was short-lived. After an appeals court blocked a corresponding injunction, the dollar took a significant hit," says Ulrich Leuchtmann, Head of FX and Commodity Research at Commerzbank.
The Euro is a preferred alternative to the Dollar when trade anxieties are rising, and it also tends to do well against most other major currencies, including the Pound, during such periods.
The EUR/USD rose from a day's low of 1.1210 to close out at 1.1365, sweeping the EUR/GBP higher to 0.8431. This meant the GBP/EUR exchange rate dropped back to a close at 1.1861, having been as high as 1.1965 a day prior.
Above: GBP/EUR at daily intervals.
The decision presents a setback to the GBP/EUR's steady trend higher, which we thought was on target to reach 1.20 in the coming days.
However, FX is by nature a random walk, and the steady rise was always likely to be challenged. We now look for further consolidation between the 50-day moving average at 1.1842 and the nine-day MA at 1.1885 to occur.