Foreign exchange and commodities – euro rises, gas prices fall – economy

On Monday, the euro benefited from the prospect of a sharp hike in interest rates in September. The common currency was 0.3 percent firmer at $ 0.9994 in the evening. Leading members of the European Central Bank (ECB) spoke out in favor of sharp interest rate hikes. “It would thus adapt to the pace of the Fed,” said investment strategist Jürgen Molnar from the brokerage house RoboMarkets. Against this background, more and more investors expect the ECB to raise the rate by 0.75 percentage points in the coming week. The prospect of rising interest rates makes the currently traded government bonds with even lower interest rates less attractive. The resulting selling pushed the yield on 10-year Bunds to a two-month high of 1.548 percent.

Gas prices eased after the recent record hunt. The European natural gas future fell by almost 17 percent to 282 euros per megawatt hour after hitting a record value of 342 euros last week. However, stockbrokers continued to fear that Russian deliveries via the important Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 could not be resumed after the end of the three-day maintenance work announced for August 31.

Speculations on reduced production volumes by the Opec+ group meanwhile made crude oil more expensive. The price of Brent from the North Sea rose by 3.8 percent to $104.85 a barrel. Some members of the group of leading oil states have hinted that production would be cut should Iranian crude return to world markets after sanctions were eased. The gold price was further weighed down by the prospect of a significant rise in key interest rates. The price of a troy ounce (31.1 grams) fell to 1720 dollars on the commodity exchange in London. This is the lowest level in about a month.

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