Busy Week Ahead – Theresa May to deliver Brexit statement tomorrow

Today could be the day to trade as we expect Theresa May to deliver Brexit statement tomorrow.

With pressure mounting on the PM to actually deliver some news on the Government’s plan for the Brexit negotiations and their general plan of how they will be handling it, May’s keynote speech on Tuesday is eagerly awaited.

The independent panel assigned to oversee the UK’s exit from Europe has had enough of the PM saying “Brexit means Brexit” without actually giving any detail whatsoever of how they plan to move forward and what trade deals they are working on. This has led to uncertainty amongst business leaders and the public which in turn has caused much volatility within markets, where we have seen the pound suffer greatly whenever the “B” word is mentioned at all, just like last weekend which saw the pound free fall to its lowest level in 31 years against the US dollar and plummet multiple cents against the single currency.

For those of you with an upcoming currency transfer to make, bearing in mind the recent Sterling performance when Theresa May has spoken about Brexit, may well be prudent to lock the transfer in today ahead of the speech tomorrow. We have been a good few cents lower against the euro already in the past few months so we know the downside levels have room to manoeuvre if market sentiment supports it. With that in mind, there are various contracts available to help mitigate risk, so call one of the team today for some friendly guidance.

As well as the speech tomorrow we also have the usual round of data to contend with this week which includes some key releases for the UK. Today is a bank holiday stateside as they celebrate Martin Luther King Day so we may see some respite for Sterling against the ever strengthening greenback, so we could see opportune buy levels for any business clients looking to mitigate recent dollar losses for future invoices.

Below we highlight the most important releases which may play a role in market movement.

Monday – US Bank Holiday, speech from BoE governor Mark Carney at 6.30pm

Tuesday – UK inflation, EU and German ZEW economic sentiment survey, British PM keynote speech

Wednesday – UK unemployment figures, EU and US inflation data, Canadian interest rate decision, US Fed chair Yellen speech

Thursday – Australian unemployment figures, ECB interest rate decision and press conference, US jobs data

Friday – German inflation readings, UK retail sales, Canadian inflation and retail sales

A very busy week stat-wise with some keynote speeches from top level people in world finance alongside the eagerly anticipated speech from Theresa May the contend with so don’t hesitate to contact one of the CI team today to discuss your options.