Brexit Bears:
The Pound continued to dive during Friday’s US session, with the Pound trading just shy of 0.89 pence per Euro. As leaders of both major political parties in the UK participated in televised debates, further light was elucidated upon the Brexit deal. Around midday, Sterling took a considerable dive through, momentarily dipping through 1.12 within GBPEUR and even breaking through 1.28 against the US Dollar. The dip coincided with news reports that Spain was dissatisfied with the incumbent Brexit deal, believing it to be against the domestic interests of Spain. Sterling traders have shaved value off of the Pound since the Brexit deal emerged alongside a flurry of cabinet resignations. Last week’s bearish Sterling tilt has been precipitated by concerns over May’s domestic political stability. However, with ratification of any deal within the European Council being drawn into question as well, the Pound continued to suffer. Within cable, the Pound fell by approximately 0.65% within a matter of minutes. The Rand weakened following a strong start this morning amidst a combination of Dollar strength and further fiscal concerns. Domestic fiscal pressures compiled as the IMF warned that South Africa’s next budget should include debt limit in order to shore up support for its underperforming domestic soft debt. Volatility throughout the global economy continues to remain elevated with the VIX holding onto a 20-handle.
Discussion and Analysis by Charles Porter
Eurozone That was a surprise: yesterday the EU announced that inflation had fallen to 2.4% which was considerably better than the 2.7% that markets had expected. Despite the ECB saying it was far too early to cut rates, the market has pencilled in the first cut for April. Before getting carried away it should be […]
Data Day Despite salient data already having been published in China and France so far this morning, we are far from finished with the deluge of data due to reach the market today. The most important of which will be those that we have signposted in earlier briefings: Eurozone and US inflation figures. Given just […]
UK Labour market The Bank of England yesterday broke cover to drive the message home that due to the UK’s labour market remaining tight, it was premature to start talking interest rate cuts and it was not just Governor Bailey who was calling for higher for longer interest rates but also his MEPC colleague Jonathan […]