Bank of England Announcement Today

Yesterday was a good day on the markets for Sterling as it carried on its recent surge against the Euro. With Macron’s election win at the weekend, it was somewhat expected that Sterling would falter against the Euro. However, it is now evident that Macron becoming the new prime minister of France was seemingly priced into the market already with the earlier polls consistent through for a Macron victory.

This now brings us closer to the next major election here in the UK. Various reports are suggesting that Theresa May already has 50% of the voters which is why we may be seeing a strong run for the Pound as of late. With the ceiling currently at the 1.20 mark, it may take some doing for Sterling to breakthrough. With this in mind we may start to see the surge start to slow down and with still a significant number of various polls yet to be released in the UK regarding the election, anything that goes against Theresa May could well send Sterling into reverse. After all this, you only have to go back to the end of last year with the EU referendum when the remain campaign was destined to win as polls suggested, yet the Brexit campaign won bringing Sterling to its knees, so nothing is guaranteed.

With all that in mind should you have a Euro requirement it could be the best time to buy your currency as we are currently at three-week highs since the snap election was first announced, call your account manager today for more information on how to get something locked in today.

Today brings a busy day on the data front, Firstly starting the day off Germany released Wholesale Price Index this morning which came in 0.3% better than expected which gained slightly on Sterling. Following at 7.15am came consumer price index from Switzerland which came in worse than anticipated over the last month. However, it was positive on the yearly figure, and as a result, the market remained fairly stagnant on the GBP/CHF pairing.

At 9.30am the UK release manufacturing and industrial production data, should these figures come in worse than expected this could be bad news for Sterling. At 12.00pm Mark Carney will address the current interest rate decision. The current rate is not expected to change, however, if any of the MPC members vote for a hike or cut unexpectedly then expect volatility in the markets. When Mr Carney holds the press conference rates are usually highly volatile so to avoid any nasty surprises it may be prudent to get your currency requirement in place today before 12 pm. At 13.30 we move over to the US as they release jobless claims, should this come in better or worse than expected expect this to move the rates. Moving north to Canada as they release new housing price index and later at 15.30 will be the Bank of Canada review.