UK Retail Sales Supports Sterling – 10th October 2017
UK Retail Sales Supports Sterling – 10th October 2017 During early September 2017, traders bought into Sterling on the belief that there was going to be an imminent interest rate rise from the Bank of England. On the surface, the UK economy is a long way from needing a rate hike when judged just on…
Worst week in a year for Sterling – 9th October 2017
Worst week in a year for Sterling – 9th October 2017 Given the pressure that has been developing on Theresa May from members of her own party (notably from the previous Tory Party Chairman last week), messages of support for Prime Minister Theresa May coming from both Cabinet Members and backbenchers are therefore being treated…
Sterling Exposed as Theresa May Fights for No. 10 – 6th October 2017
Sterling Exposed as Theresa May Fights for No. 10 – 6th October 2017 The ongoing political tension that has been circling the Conservative Party since its disastrous election campaign in June boiled over yesterday as Grant Shapps, the former Tory Party Chairman, said he now has thirty colleagues backing a move to oust Theresa May as…
All eyes on the ECB today – 7th September 2017
All eyes on the ECB today – 7th September 2017 The big news today is the upcoming announcement by Mario Draghi on the outcome of the ECB policy meeting and any comments about the possibility of a tapering of the quantitative easing programme. Expectations are that the press conference later today will lay the groundwork…
Bank of Canada Raises Interest Rates – 13th July 2017
Bank of Canada Raises Interest Rates – 13th July 2017 The Bank of Canada’s Stephen Poloz seized the interest rate torch from the Fed’s Janet Yellen on Wednesday by increasing interest rates to 0.75% while Ms Yellen’s testimony to Congress made it sound as though she was not so convinced about the upward momentum of…
Sterling falls as North American data leads the way – 10th July 2017
Sterling falls as North American data leads the way – 10th July 2017 It wasn’t actually that surprising was it that US President Trump distanced himself from other world leaders at the G20 summit in Hamburg over the weekend however, more surprising was that it had minimal impact on exchange rates. US and UK economic…
ECB President Draghi boosts the Euro – 28th June 2017
ECB President Draghi boosts the Euro – 28th June 2017 A speech by the ECB’s Mario Draghi was the catalyst for sending the Euro to the top of Tuesday’s leader board as it gained by one and a half US cents. Mr Draghi spoke of “a strengthening and broadening recovery in the Euro area”…
Sterling stages a comeback – 26th June 2017
Sterling stages a comeback – 26th June 2017 Sterling ended the week looking slightly more robust than when it started. The upturn was due to a combination of lower UK government borrowing and a more hawkish tone from the Bank of England chief economist on Wednesday. The CBI’s Industrial Trends Survey contributed to the…
US raises interest rates – 15th June 2017
US raises interest rates – 15th June 2017 Immediately ahead of London’s opening yesterday Sterling moved higher across the board for no obvious reason and managed to hold onto these gains until just before the ONS published the UK employment data. On the plus side, the 7,300 increase in jobseeker numbers was less than…
Time for an interest rate hike – 14th June 2017
Time for an interest rate hike – 14th June 2017 It is widely expected that the US Federal Reserve will announce a 0.25% increase in US interest rates tonight with the increase already factored into the price of the US Dollar. If the decision is “no-change” then the US Dollar would suffer. Over the last week the…
