20.02.202611:31 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Lagarde calls for expanded trade ties and partnership

While the euro continues to lose ground daily against the US dollar, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde again urged global partnership to preserve an international order that benefits more than just the strongest players.

"Despite the erosion of trust, the incentives for countries to cooperate remain strong," Lagarde said in a speech in New York. "In a world this interconnected, no country can afford to turn its back on cooperation."

Lagarde also defended the system built by both the strong and the weak after the wars of the last century, while stressing that it may need reform, citing the World Trade Organization. "We face a choice. We can accept the drift towards a balance of power among rivals—a model that history tells us is stable only until it is not. Or we can take the harder route: reform so that the international order regains the trust of those who have lost faith in it," Christine Lagarde said.

Similar themes appeared in her address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Lagarde said she did not fully share the view held by some world leaders that the rule-based order is fading. "But it would be wrong to conclude that we are condemned to go backwards. To unravel the connections built over decades. To slide towards a world more fractured even than the world we had during the Cold War—which, for all its dangers, still had rules," she added.

On trade relations, Lagarde argued that the WTO has not lost its relevance: 70% of world trade is still conducted under its rules. And leading powers have not abandoned it.

Not everyone agrees with that position. Opening the Munich Security Conference this month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered a more pessimistic assessment of international cooperation, saying that the global order no longer exists in the form it once did.

Her remarks had no observable impact on foreign exchange markets.

A technical outlook for EUR/USD suggests that buyers should consider reclaiming 1.1770. That would open the way to test 1.1790. From there, a move to 1.1825 is possible, although advancing beyond that without support from major players would be difficult. The extended target is 1.1850. On a decline, meaningful buying interest is likely near 1.1745. If buyers do not appear there, it would be prudent to wait for a new low at 1.1720 or to open long positions from 1.1690.