European Union leaders are open to new deals with China. In order to hedge the current risk of US trade tariffs China has spread its trade network far and wide. All over Africa, Chinese companies have invested and gained majority shares in mining companies, utilities and agriculture. Next week we will see during the EU-China summit what investments China will make in the EU. There is a large network of political advocates for China across Europe. This is more under the radar influence balance that is being stepped up by EU leaders as we head towards Parliament elections in May.
In addition to trade talks with China, EU ambassadors are preparing to go ahead with trade talks with the US. France is the only nation to hold off on their consent. The trading bloc is eager to begin cutting industrial tariffs. Any additional tariffs or disputes with the US would come at a very bad time for the EU.
The economic struggle in the EU is apparent and data sets have dragged the Euro down. The European Central Bank will publish their monetary policy meeting minutes on Wednesday, shedding a light on a discussion that motivated ECB President Mario Draghi’s announcement that officials should reflect on ways to offset negative interest rates currently in the European Union. There could a plan in the works at providing a bailout for European banks that are suffering loses to their profit margins.
The Euro is bouncing off of a key support level of 1.1200. Technical analysis shows us that we are still in a bearish consolidation and we need to break the trendline to the top and solidify there. Once price breaks above 1.1300 we can start to look for long positions after we get confirmation of commitment from bullish traders.