Elections dictating the markets

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day on the data front which saw little movement on the currency market. However the Prime minister Theresa May held the last Prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons until the general election. It was the last time for the May and Jerermy Corbyn to debate against each other in front of the camera and in the presence of the members of parliament as May has insisted that there will be no television debates taking place. May is heavily backed in early polls to win the election to stay as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. As more polls are released from now up until June 8th when the election is held you can expect Sterling to react in a volatile way. Should the polls continue to suggest a strong backing towards Theresa May then Sterling is expected to gain strength from this, however with the current elections in France Sterling’s potential gains could be counteracted with Emmanuel Macron the current front runner the has given Euro it’s recent surge against Sterling. With this being a somewhat uncertain time it may be prudent to act now should you have a requirement to secure Euros, If Macron was to win the election then we can expect Sterling to fall further against the Euro and could eradicate the gains it has made in the past months. Should you not want to gamble on current affairs then get in touch with your account manager here at Currency Index.

Today is a busy day in the way of data, Starting in the Eurozone at 10am there are various data releases, Economic & Service sentiment, Consumer & Industrial confidence and Business climate is to be released. Should these figures all come in as expected then expect an early Euro rally in the morning. Later in the morning at 11.45am staying in the Eurozone Mario Draghi announces the Interest rate decision from the European Central bank. It is expected that rates are expected to remain the same, however any hint of any rate hikes or cuts would create volatility against the majors. Later in the afternoon and moving to the US Jobless claims are to be released which is expected to be a better reading than last month, also Durable goods is to be announced, should the figure come in lower than last month Sterling could potentially gain on the greenback. The final data releases come from New Zealand and the UK, building permits, trade balance and imports and exports are announce by the kiwis at 22.45 and GFK consumer confidence in the UK at 23.00.