Dollar holds steady ahead of European markets open

The greenback is the second best performing major currency on the day

The general theme has been dollar strength, with decent ranges so far stretching from the Asian session.

The yen has been the exception as political woes concerning Japanese prime minister Abe weighs on equities a little, and the uncertainty surrounding the future of Abenomics playing at the back of traders’ minds.

It’s been a quiet day so far with not much to go on, but that should change as we progress through the week.

There’s a host of central bank meetings to come later in the week, with a line up of the Fed, RBNZ, and BOE as the major ones. Then, we’ll have the EU Summit on 22-23 March where we will see if a Brexit transition agreement will be signed. The question of the Irish border remains very much in the air, so there’s risks involving that as well.

Finally, we’re going to have Trump’s tariffs officially take effect at the end of the week as the EU and other countries continue to seek exemptions from it. That will also weigh in on sentiment in the market as continued talks of retaliation and trade wars isn’t something that will help risk assets.