Pound News: UK Labour Market Continues to Tighten While the UK unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to a forty-two-year low of 4.2% in February this failed to shore up Pound (GBP) exchange rates on Tuesday. Even with average weekly earnings finally overtaking inflation the appeal of the Pound weakened, as wage growth failed to accelerate as…(read more)

Pound News: Markets Confident in Prospect of May BoE Rate Hike Confidence in the Pound (GBP) generally picked up at the start of the week, with investors hopeful ahead of the latest round of Brexit discussions. With forecasts pointing towards a fresh uptick in the UK average weekly earnings figure GBP exchange rates were encouraged…(read more)

Last week’s high: C$1.8082 Last week’s low: C$1.7819 Trade Hopes Keep Canadian Dollar (CAD) Appealing Versus Pound While Bank of England (BoE) interest rate hike bets kept the Pound broadly strong last week, GBP/CAD ultimately ended the week below its opening levels due to Canadian Dollar strength. Investors found the Canadian Dollar appealing due to…(read more)

Last week’s high: AU$1.8425 Last week’s low: AU$1.8207   Australian Dollar Unstable as Risk Appetite Fluctuates The Pound was met by volatility against the Australian Dollar last week as rising geopolitical tensions caused market risk appetite to fluctuate. Also prompting the GBP/AUD exchange rate to trade in a wide range was the ongoing speculation regarding…(read more)

Last week’s high: $1.4291 Last week’s low: $1.4085   Trump Rhetoric Prompts Losses for the US Dollar The Pound US Dollar exchange rate struck its highest levels since the Brexit referendum last week as geopolitical concerns weighed heavily on USD. These concerns were even enough to offset some impressive US inflation figures, despite suggestions that…(read more)

Last week’s high: €1.1587 Last week’s low: €1.1445 Surprisingly Dovish ECB Minutes Weigh Heavily on Euro Unexpectedly dovish European Central Bank (ECB) meeting minutes put significant pressure on the Euro this week. Policymakers expressed concern over the prospect of a global trade war, while also noting worries over the relative strength of the single currency….(read more)

Pound News: Stagnating UK House Prices Fail to Dent BoE Rate Hike Bets Investors were not impressed to find that the RICS house price balance had stagnated once again in March, pointing towards a continued softening of the UK housing market. However, this failed to keep the Pound (GBP) on a weaker footing on Thursday…(read more)

Pound News: Signs Continue to Point Towards Weakening UK Growth Confidence in the Pound (GBP) was knocked once again as the NIESR gross domestic product estimate for the three months to March proved weaker than anticipated. With economic growth now thought to have eased to just 0.2% in the first quarter, thanks in part to…(read more)

Pound News: Sterling Shrugs Off Hawkish Policymaker Commentary Bank of England (BoE) policymaker Ian McCafferty adopted a rather hawkish outlook in comments on Tuesday, suggesting that he is likely to vote in favour of an imminent interest rate hike. However, as McCafferty remains one of the most outspoken hawks on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)…(read more)

Last week’s high: $1.4096 Last week’s low: $1.3967 GBP/USD Advances despite US Dollar Recovery Despite weak UK data and some brief bursts of US Dollar strength, the Pound to US Dollar exchange rate has largely gained over the past week and could continue to climb if US data fails to impress in the coming sessions…(read more)