The Post Trump Era

GBP The pound had an average week as it played second fiddle to the main event across the pond. Sterling only made gains against the Dollar (1.8%) and Yen (0.45%) but lost ground to the Euro (0.4%). There were more Brexit headlines this week though they did not bring anymore news as Michel Barnier reiterated…

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Is Johnson’s Bluffing and Trump’s Last Chance

GBP Brexit negotiations dragged the pound backdown after hitting a 5-week high against the Euro on Wednesday afternoon. Boris Johnson’s self-imposed deadline of the 15th of October has now been and gone and with no further breakthroughs at the tenth round of talks tensions are starting to ride high on both sides of the channel.…

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Brexit, EU Summit and US Stimulus Talks

GBP The pound finished the week strongly and managed to match the weekly high against the Dollar at just over 1.30 as sentiment towards the UK EU negotiations turned positive yet again. Against the Euro the Pound spent most of the week bouncing between 1.1015 and 1.0960, the price action fuelled by headlines about the…

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All eyes on Trump

GBP The Pound had a roller coaster week as it reacted to every headline and rumour coming out of the Brexit negotiations, with the volatility reaching 1.4% for the week. Though given the volatility the pound still managed to finish the week 0.3% up against the euro and just over 1% against the dollar. The…

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Boris to meet with European counterparts this week

STERLING The pound hit its lowest level against the US Dollar since January 2017 last Monday at 1.2015 but recovered thereafter on stronger than expected UK data. Average earnings, CPI and retail sales all surprised to the upside and boosted Sterling although the threat of a no-deal Brexit continues to limit any upside. Of note…

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ECB hold rates until 2020

EURO The European Central Bank pushed back their rate guidance on Thursday and pledged to remain on hold at least through the first half of 2020. The Euro rallied in response as the Governing Council stopped short of opening the door to a rate cut. EUR/USD made further gains on Friday and closed above $1.13…

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Trump threatens China with increased tariffs

US DOLLAR The Dollar Index inched higher yesterday morning to 97.6 having declined on Friday’s jobs report as soft wage data overshadowed a strong non-farm payrolls print (+263,000) with the unemployment rate falling to 3.6%, a 50-year low. The Trump administration continued to raise the temperature in trade tensions with China yesterday, with top trade…

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Trump continues criticism of Fed monetary policy

US DOLLAR After a soft start to last week, the US Dollar finished strongly with the Dollar Index hitting a one-week high on Friday at 96.55. Thursday’s stronger than expected GDP data was the main catalyst after the Greenback had shown little reaction to relatively mundane comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Comments from US…

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