European session review: EUR mixed ahead of Fed and ECB’s policy decisions

EUR traded mixed against other major currencies in the European session on Wednesday, with declines versus JPY, CAD and AUD, and gains versus USD, GBP and CHF.

Market participants are awaiting the announcements of the outcomes of the policy meetings of the Federal Reserve (due later today) and European Central Bank (due on Thursday), at which the central bankers are expected to expand stimulus to help their coronavirus-hit economies.

Several European countries, including Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, have unveiled their lockdown easing plans in the past few days, boosting investors' optimism about economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Investors received disappointing data from the European Commission, which showed that economic confidence in the Eurozone fell sharply in April and reached the lowest level since March 2009, as the coronavirus crisis escalated. The economic confidence index plunged to 67.0 this month from 94.2 in March. That marked the biggest monthly decline since 1985.

This data added to pressure on the single currency, which was hit hard earlier today by the report that rating agency Fitch downgraded Italy's rating to BBB- from BBB with a Stable outlook, due to a significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the fiscal position of the economy.