Swiss franc ticks up

The Swiss franc ticked higher on Thursday ahead of the European Central Bank's interest rate decision, where markets await unchanged rates and a more pessimistic ECB assessment of the euro zone economy. "The franc is rising because the market is speculating on early ECB rate cuts and risk aversion is generally increasing due to the gloomier economic outlook for Europe," said Ronald Plasser from Austria's RZB.
The franc inched up 0.2 against the euro compared to the New York close, trading at 1.6005 per euro. The franc rose 0.2 percent against the dollar to 1.1038 per dollar. The ECB is widely expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at 4.25 percent, so markets will focus on ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet's view on the economy and the central bank's updated growth and inflation forecasts. A slight majority of economists polled by Reuters expects the ECB to cut rates at least once by March 2009.