The Euro Is Getting Smoked

The euro is getting smoked.

In late morning trade on Friday, the euro was making new lows against the US dollar, falling to below 1.15 against the dollar, the lowest level in 11 years.

The tumble in the euro on Friday comes after Thursday's surprise announcement from the Swiss National Bank that saw the SNB abandon its peg of 1.20 against the euro.

The SNB's pegging was meant to weaken the Swiss franc against the euro to make it more attractive to potential trade partners, but as the euro has weakened considerably, the SNB had increasing difficulty maintaining its peg and abandoned this strategy. Following that announcement, the franc strengthened dramatically, and on Friday it had moved back to parity, or a 1:1 ratio, against the euro.

On Friday, markets were still digesting the ramifications of the SNB's actions, with US currency broker FXCM currently halted for trade, pending news, after announcing a $225 million loss on Thursday, while US trading platform Interactive Brokers said it lost $120 million following the developments.

So, crazy currency markets right now.