Sterling Gains Off Theresa May’s Speech

Theresa May Speaks To CBI

Yesterday we saw a sterling gain as Theresa May made a speech to the Confederation of British Industries conference in London. Sterling managed to correct back some of its heavy losses we saw the end of last week following the interest rate hike.

More specifically, after the bank of England future interest rate guidance indicated a slower, longer-term cycle of hikes, in contrast to market expectations which saw the exchange rates free fall. As May spoke, she assured business leaders that “There are huge opportunities ahead. Making the most of them will demand hard work, imagination, and commitment,”

Markit Services PMI Hurts The Euro

While Theresa May was making her speech to the CBI, markets digested a raft of Markit services PMI data across Europe including Germany and the EU as a whole. The results were mixed, with German missing out on all expectations, as did France, Spain and Italy.

Surprisingly as a whole, the EU drew better than forecast figures, but it wasn’t enough to stop the pound/euro rates improving as we saw just over a cent gain over the day.

Australian Interest Rate Decision

Overnight we had the RBA interest rate decision which was widely expected to be kept on hold at 1.5 percent. The decision came out as expected in the early hours and we saw little movement in the rates as a result.

Today’s Key Releases

Today is fairly light on data releases with only two key releases, being the NEISR GDP estimate for the UK at 3 pm which coincides with a speech from Canada by Governor Poloz. Anyone looking to send money to Canada over the coming weeks may wish to speak with one of the team this morning in case the two releases throw up any adverse volatility.