The euro is diving on Thursday, after the European Central Bank announced a six-month extension to its quantitative easing programme.
At its latest monetary policy meeting, the bank's governing council said that from April 2017 — the month after its quantitative easing programme was scheduled to end — it will buy up to €60 billion of assets per month, €20 billion less than its current programme.
As a result of the move, the euro has slipped almost 0.9%, having very briefly spiked higher as the decisions were announced at 12.45 p.m. GMT (7.45 a.m. ET). The currency dropped significantly as ECB President Mario Draghi started.
Here's how that looks around 1.50 p.m. GMT:
Screen Shot 2016 12 08 at 13.51.21Markets Insider
The euro's movements in recent weeks have been unpredictable. The single currency slumped more than 1% after former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced his resignation following his crushing defeat in the country's constitutional reform referendum.
That was expected, but the rapid recovery of the currency, which actually closed higher the day after the vote, was not.
Societe Generale said in November that it expects the euro to hit parity against the dollar for the first time in almost 15 years at the start of 2017 as political uncertainty in the single currency area begins to crystallise.
Parity between the euro and the dollar will be driven by two big catalysts: European politics, and a strengthening dollar following the expected rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in December.

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