British Pound
With weekly earnings coming out at up 5.7% in the 3 months to the end of May compared to the same period a year earlier which is a key indicator for inflation and closely watched by the Bank of England, the feeling in the market yesterday was that the likelihood of a rate cut in early August was slipping away. Some of GBP’s recent strength has been due to USD weakness but this time with USD broadly steady, it was due to domestic pressures that GBP was marked down.
GBP/USD 1.2980
Popular French Names
In France in 2023 the four most popular names for girls were Louise, Ambre, Alba and Jade. But when it comes to boys it is Gabriel, Raphael, Leo and Louis. It may be 235 years since the French Revolution and the beheading of King Louis XVl and his wife Marie Antoinette 4 years afterwards, but Louis and Louise remain up there in republican France.
EUR/JPY 170.86