On Monday, ahead of opening, the US federal reserve announced its largest-ever quantitative easing programme. Just eight days ago, they announced that they would pump an additional $700bn into the markets which they have already burned through.
As a result, they have introduced an open-ended QE programme in which they will be purchasing unlimited treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in order to support the financial markets during the pandemic. The central bank also announced that they will also establish loan facilities to support large employers and provide more credit to struggling businesses and individuals.
On the other side of the pond, we saw a slight retracement into the pound as UK prime Minister Boris Johnson as he announced that he will be enforcing a 3 week lockdown in order to tackle COVID-19 in which the population will only leave the house if necessary for either work, food shopping or exercise
Primarily, the markets are now looking at the PMI data for March to find out how the UK and Europe is coping with the pandemic. Currently, both the UK and Europe’s reading are above 50. However, economists are predicting a severe contraction to the data estimating it to be released between 38 and 42.5. In which case we would see the rates drop off. It is also important to note that if the data is released below 35, it would reflect the already similar times to the 2008 financial crisis and the corresponding currencies would see a massive sell off.