Slashing the base rate

Today’s news headlines:

‘BoE compelled to act as coronavirus pummels economy’. The Bank of England was forced to act for the third time in eight days yesterday, slashing the UK’s base rate to 0.1%, a new all-time low. This follows a plethora of monetary stimulus that included attractive funding schemes to both banks and businesses. New BoE Governor, Andrew Bailey, also took the decision to start up the printing presses to the tune of £200bn and use it to begin buying government bonds in the latest and grandest round of quantitative easing by the central bank. (Financial Times)

‘Italy’s PM urges Brussels to unleash €500bn rescue fund’. The Italian Prime Minister has called for the EU to use all of its €500bn rescue fund in the face of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Giuseppe Conte told the Financial Times that it was time for the European Stability Mechanism to offer emergency credit lines to countries most affected by the outbreak, warning that monetary policy alone is not capable of countering this unprecedented global shock. (Financial Times)

Today's events, rates, and data 

The US Dollar sold off overnight as some risk appetite returned, the Pound and Euro are both trading higher against the Greenback this morning. Asian stocks rose along with European and US equity futures. However, there was an increase in demand for the safe-havens of gold and the Japanese Yen. 

Today's events

CAD: Core Retail Sales for the month of January are expected to fall to 0.2% from 0.5%

Interbank rates:

GBP/USD 1.1850
GBP/EUR 1.0982
EUR/USD 1.0787