Pound Down – more to come?

13 May, 2019

Matthew Boyle

Last week was a tough one for the Pound, seeing it slide across the board, and most noticeably against the USD and EUR – losing just over 1.5% against both.

With the Brexit deadlock ongoing and fears that any potential cross party talks would fail, it seems the market has soured towards GBP again.

There are also underlying fears that as we have seen no progress, there is potential of a leadership battle in the Tory party, (one which would likely see a new leader with a harder stance on Brexit), a general election (which Corbyn would stand a chance of winning), or a potential further extension to Article 50 (more uncertainty) – all of which are seen as bad for the Pound.

Consequently we have seen GBP rates for buying the single currency and greenback pushed back down towards a 6 week low, after having touched close to a 2 year high against both only a couple of weeks ago.

With a week of data releases ahead, but little on the horizon to suggest we will see a recovery, readers may like to consider there options to limit risk for their transaction- perhaps forward booking your currency, placing a stop loss order to protect against further drops, or splitting your transfer to mitigate risk. Speak to your broker today for some of the available options that we offer to help.

What to watch for

Today’s data is dominated by central bank speeches, although is quiet in the way of Ecostats. Tomorrow sees UK unemployment which s expected to hold @ 3.4%, and also German and EUR ZEW surveys.

Elsewhere in the world we have significant data for AUD and CAD – so stay in close contact if you have transfers to make to send money to Australia or Canada.

In what is a relatively quiet week data-wise, sentiment will continue to largely drive the market, and that sentiment seems against the Pound at present.

So if you have any upcoming transfers to make, speak to us today about some of the ways we can help protect you from any further drops to the rate, and the potential increase to your costs.

Monday
07.30 AUD RBAs Debele Speech
13.10 USD Fed Clarida Speech
21.30 CAD BoCs Lane speech

Tuesday
06.00 EUR German harmonized index of consumer prices
08.30 GBP Average earnings and unemployment
09.00 EUR German ZEW survey
09.00 EUR Eurozone production and ZEW survey

Wednesday
06.00 EUR German GDP
09.00 EUR GDP and employment change
12.30 USD Retail sales control group
12.30 CAD BoC consumer price index

Thursday
01.30 AUD Employment change and rate
09.00 EUR Trade balance data
15.15 CAD BoC Governor Poloz speech

Friday
09.00 EUR Consumer price index data
14.00 USD Michigan Consumer price Index data