Market News
via Barclays
- Sterling was the most notable outperformer last week
- Emerging market currencies saw significant losses as heightened global volatility expected
- This week watch for Carney’s speech (Tuesday), UK employment data (Wed) and UK Retail Sales (Thu)
The Pound recorded its biggest two-week rise in eight years against a basket of major currencies after Donald Trump’s presidential victory and the previous week’s High Court Brexit ruling prompted traders to reassess their bets against sterling
The 4% jump in Sterling’s trade-weighted index, measuring the value of the Pound against several currencies including the Dollar, Euro and Yen, cemented the currency’s best fortnightly performance since 2008.
It came as the Euro headed for its worst week against the pound since July 2015 as Mr Trump’s win raised investor concern over populist outcomes in upcoming European referenda and elections, including next month’s Italian constitutional referendum.
On Friday last week GBPUSD was above 1.2600 for the first time since early October, however this morning we have seen retracement back below 1.2500. EURGBP is near a 2-month low, touching 0.8580 before retracing back above 0.8600 this morning.
Today’s currency rates:
GBPUSD today is at 1.2467
GBPEUR 1.1611
EURUSD 1.0737
GBPAUD 1.6544
EURGBP 0.89613