Currencies Direct

Markets ended the week on a mixed note, following the release of US Jobs data on Friday. Non-Farm Payroll showed 227k growth in the job market in January, much stronger than the expectation of 175k and up from the previous month’s 157k, the headline unemployment rate also rose 0.1% to 4.8%, above expectation of remaining […]

Mark Carney has dramatically upgraded growth forecasts for the UK, this comes as the BoE revised growth forecasts significantly while keeping their inflation forecast unchanged. Fears of the bank leaving London post-Brexit have also now been dismissed. The Bank of England expects the UK economy to grow by 2% this year, up from its previous […]

It was another strong day for the pound after a sluggish start saw it gain 1% on the euro and 0.5% on the dollar as many investors believe that the BOE may hint at raising interest rates soon when they meet at their quarterly inflation meeting today. With many suggesting Brexit-related caution, Mark Carney may […]

Today’s main focus will be on the US FOMC meeting which will occur in the evening. It is expected that the FOMC will not move interest rates but the market will be scrutinising the accompanying statement for clues on future moves. The FOMC will still be adjusting to incoming President Trump and will await clarification […]

Donald Trump’s ‘travel ban’ has led to investors moving into other safe havens, with JPY and Gold being the short term winners. Business leaders from across the world have voiced their opinions and now Theresa May has come into the firing line for not overly condemning his latest actions. She has since stated she looks […]

To recap over the past week, we saw Sterling regain some lost ground throughout generally more positive FX markets. The main market focus this week will be the monetary policy, with both the Federal Reserve and Bank of England due to meet. Although the Fed aren’t expected to make any rate changes, we could see […]

The White House readies itself to welcome UK Prime Minister Theresa May today. She is the first leader to meet the new US president, and there is already a lot of anticipation and contrasting views in the media on the meeting. Mrs May is ambitious, and wants to try and secure a free trade deal […]

The pound has performed strongly this week, somewhat boosted by the scheduled Trump/May meeting tomorrow. Today we have key hard data to focus on, with the first reading of Q4 2016 GDP due out. It is expected to come in at 0.5% for the quarter, with the yearly figure at 2.1%. UK PMI data has […]

Yesterday’s main event was the UK Supreme Court’s decision regarding Article 50 and it went just as markets had anticipated. The High Court’s ruling was upheld meaning that the UK Parliament must have to vote in order to trigger Article 50. The Court’s decision did, as expected, coincide with some Sterling volatility. However, ranges were […]

Monday was another positive day for Sterling which made further ground on all of its major counterparts, as the markets were still taking in Donald Trump’s inauguration and his decision to sign a bill that formally withdraws the US from the Trans-Pacific partnership trade deal. In what could be a sign of the upcoming future […]