News

The European Union’s latest package of sanctions targeting Russia includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.

The U.S. weighed curbs on software-related exports to China, responding to Beijing’s rare earth export controls, ahead of a critical round of negotiations.

The latest minutes from the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) September monetary policy meeting express that interest rates won’t fall into negative territory as inflationary pressures in the economy are not expected to become persistently negative.

USD/CAD moves little after two days of losses, trading around 1.3990 during the early European hours on Thursday. The technical analysis of the daily chart suggests a weakening of a prevailing bullish bias as the pair is attempting to break below the ascending channel pattern.

EUR/USD drifts lower at the European session opening on Thursday, trading right below 1.1600 at the time of writing, down from the previous day’s highs at 1.1620.

• Financial market situation was characterized by low volatility in the third quarter of 2025.
• Signs of a cooling in the US labour market increased market expectations of a further easing of monetary policy in the US.
• The governing board concluded that the current implementation of monetary policy was appropriate under various scenarios and should therefore be maintained.
• US tariffs are likely to curb global trade and reduce the purchasing power of US households.
• This could result in an appreciation of the Swiss Franc.
• The increase in US tariffs is directly impacting only part of the economy.
• The Franc was relatively stable against the Euro.
• For the inflation forecast, large exchange rate movements are above all cited as a risk factor.
• Uncertainty about the future development of inflation remains elevated.
• The economy outlook for Switzerland also remains uncertain.
• The main risks for economy are still the development of US tariffs and global demand.
• Inflation forecast and the economic outlook support the case for not changing monetary policy.
• Economic outlook for Switzerland is subject to high risks, above all due to US trade policy.
• Hardly any signs of the negative effects of the tariffs spreading from the export-oriented industries affected to other parts of the economy.
• Full report here

Central banks’ meeting minutes are almost never a market-moving release because it’s old data. The market already knows pretty much everything the minutes contain and most of the time the minutes become stale by the time they are released because new data or events happen after the central bank meeting.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Eurostoxx +0.1%
• Germany DAX -0.1%
• France CAC 40 +0.3%
• UK FTSE +0.2%
• Spain IBEX -0.3%
• Italy FTSE MIB +0.3%

French stocks are continuing to hang at the highs, hoping to clear key resistance closer around the 8,253 to 8,259 region. As for the DAX, it remains more tepid after paring a modest chunk of the gains from Monday. US futures are keeping lightly changed, with S&P 500 futures seen up 0.1% currently. That’s keeping risk appetite relatively muted as the session gets underway.

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.

Here is what you need to know on Thursday, October 23:

FX option expiries for Oct 23 NY cut at 10:00 Eastern Time via DTCC can be found below.