As Sterling has hit a year-to-date low this week, the US Dollar has rallied and, in turn, trades at its highest value of 2018 so far. The market snapshot this morning shows a flat Pound Sterling along with a dampened Euro. Despite weak inflation data in the Eurozone being announced this morning, the single currency has proved resilient. Losing moderate value this morning following an uneventful yet positive interest rate announcement yesterday evening, the US Dollar trades down almost 0.3% on a trade weighted basis. The Rand has been particularly volatile over the past few days while technical pressures spilling over from the Dollar’s two-week-long bull run create emerging market turbulence. Following a chronic weakness yesterday, on average, the Rand now trades 0.35% higher versus its counterparts. Despite a data-heavy end to the week, the salience of many statistics announcements will be limited. In the United States, a Labour market survey scheduled to be released tomorrow afternoon London-time could prove to be risky for the Dollar.
Discussion and Analysis by Charles Porter

Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Defiance Yesterday’s market was defying one of two things: logic or gravity. Come to think of it, perhaps both. Take cable, GBPUSD, yesterday. The key events beyond minor data releases centred around any chatter from either side of the Iranian conflict and Starmer singing for his supper. Sing he did and tweet the President did, […]
A technicality Markets appeared to be fatigued by Trump’s Iran war before a ceasefire had even been agreed. This was evident from pricing that would have been considered complacent should the conflict have dragged on longer than it ultimately did. Now, that saga is far from over – it’s inevitable, for example, that as the […]
Short-lived relief rally A tantrum in the bond market has continued to erode away at risk conditions in recent sessions. In the UK, the sell-off in gilts and corporate bonds has been particularly acute thanks to heightened political instability, the origins of which we have covered thoroughly in recent briefings. Yesterday, headlines delivered enough optimism […]