Crown, forint slip further from peaks as FX ease

PRAGUE, June 19 (Reuters) - Central Europe's currencies eased on Friday, with the Hungarian forint and Czech crown pulling away further from recent peaks as a stronger U.S. dollar and renewed uncertainty over a U.S. peace deal with Iran rattled markets.

U.S. talks with Iranian negotiators on a pact to end the Middle East conflict looked unlikely to take place on Friday, while Vice President JD Vance dropped plans to travel there.

That fuelled uncertainty whether a lasting truce can be found, weighing on global markets.

This week, the forint touched its highest level since September 2021 on the strong side of the big 350 per euro level while the crown also hit a six-month peak, but currencies have reversed course due to dollar strength after new U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh pledged to tackle inflation.

A Czech interest rate hike on Thursday - the first in four years - failed to give the currency more support with the Czech National Bank giving no signals it would be the start of a tightening cycle.

"Our own view is that this is most likely to represent a one-time precautionary hike – not the start of a hiking cycle – while market pricing is consistent with one more hike," Goldman Sachs said in a note.

The crown traded less than 0.1% lower on the day at 24.210 to the euro, after peaking at 24.100 in intraday trading on Thursday.

HUNGARY RATE CUTS MAY RESUME

The forint was also down around 0.1% at 352.90 to the euro, and was around a one-week low.

Hungary's central bank will meet next week, and unlike peers in the region, it is expected to resume a rate-cutting path.

All analysts in a Reuters poll on Friday forecast a cut, with most seeing a reduction of 25 basis points to take the main rate to 6.00%, which is still one of the highest rates in the European Union.

Some say a bigger cut could happen.

"While a 25bp cut would likely cause the forint to strengthen further (since the market has already priced in more than that for next week's rate decision), a 50bp cut could limit the currency's appreciation," ING said in a preview.

High rates and a change in the government raising the chances of a release of frozen EU funds have helped send the forint to multi-year highs this year.

In other trading, the Polish zloty and Romania's leu held fairly steady, while stock markets were mixed, with Prague just bucking the weakening trend.

CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1110 CET

CURRENCIES Latest Previou Daily Change

trade s close change in 2026

Czech 24.210 24.1920 -0.07% -0.18%

crown 0

Hungary 352.90 352.600 -0.09% +8.92%

forint 00 0

Polish 4.2615 4.2600 -0.04% -1.08%

zloty

Romania 5.2394 5.2395 +0.00 -2.77%

n leu %

Serbian 117.28 117.350 +0.06 +0.02%

dinar 00 0 %

Note: daily change calculated from 1800 CET

STOCKS Latest Previou Daily Change

s close change in 2026

Prague 2562.3 2553.70 +0.34 -4.59%

6 00 %

Budapes 138130 138405. -0.20% +24.41

t .56 87 %

Warsaw 3659.0 3671.03 -0.33% +14.92

2 %

Buchare 31001. 30887.2 +0.37 +26.85

st 80 9 % %

BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily

(bid) change vs change

Bund in

spread

Czech 3.9693 0.0698 +134b +4bps

Rep ps

2-year

Czech 4.1552 0.0247 +145b -1bps

Rep ps

5-year

Czech 4.6523 -0.0200 +169b -6bps

Rep ps

10-year

Poland 4.3380 -0.1430 +171b -17bps

2-year ps

Poland 5.0220 -0.0260 +232b -6bps

5-year ps

Poland 5.4720 0.0010 +251b -4bps

10-year ps

FORWARD RATE 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M

AGREEMENTS interba

nk

Czech 4.02 4.13 4.19 3.65

Rep

Poland 3.90 4.01 4.12 3.84

Note: FRA quotes are for

ask prices

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Krisztina Than in Budapest;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)