Euro sharply fell by over 200 points this morning as the
Swiss National Bank (SNB) discontinued the minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per euro. At the same time, it is lowering the
interest rate on sight deposit account balances that exceed a given exemption threshold by 0.5 percentage points, to −0.75%.
Interest rate was cut at an unscheduled emergency meeting. It is moving the target range for the three-month Libor further into negative territory, to between –1.25% and −0.25%, from the current range of between −0.75% and 0.25%.
After sharp initial decline euro is slowly rebounding and is now being traded around 1.17 handle. Later today, in the US session
Unemployment Claims,
PPI, Empire State Manufacturing Index and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index figures are scheduled for a release.