Russia-Ukraine Negotiations Reach Progress, Euro Consolidates

The euro gained prestige against other major currencies, including safe-haven counterparts the Swiss franc, Japanese yen and US dollar.

The euro strengthened around 0.3 percent to around 1,095 against the US dollar at the start of today's European session (14/March). The euro also gained prestige against other major currencies, including safe-haven counterparts the Swiss franc and Japanese yen. The Russo-Ukrainian war is still raging, but market concerns about a potential escalation of the conflict have started to fade.

Russia-Ukraine Negotiations Reach Progress, Euro Consolidates

EUR/USD Daily chart via TradingView

Yesterday's Russian missile attack hit the Yavoriv military base, which is only 25 km from the Ukraine-Poland border and was previously occupied by NATO instructors. Fighting has continued, but hopes of reaching a ceasefire have emerged following Russian-Ukrainian negotiations over the weekend.

Also Read : Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine Is A Little Calm, EUR/USD Strengthens

"Russia has started to speak constructively," Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in an online video cited by The Guardian, "I think we will achieve some results in a matter of days."

Russia's representative in the negotiations, Leonid Slutsky, told RIA News Agency that they had made significant progress and would likely work out a draft agreement soon. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also acknowledged to the media that Russia is showing signs of being willing to carry out substantive negotiations regarding Ukraine.

Also Read : UK GDP Growth Fails to Stimulate Pound Sterling Exchange Rate

The two sides did not elaborate on the details of the progress that had been achieved, but market participants considered the news to be quite encouraging. The momentum of the price rally for a number of commodities weakened again, including Brent and WTI crude oil, which each corrected between 2-3 percent.

Also Read : US Inflation Data Help Dollar Conquer Japanese Yen

Euro also took the opportunity to take a breath while waiting for further developments. Meanwhile, market participants are shifting focus to a series of key central bank policy meetings to be held throughout the week. It is highly suspected that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (BoE) will announce an interest rate hike of at least 25 basis points, while the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is unlikely to announce any policy changes.