Will they or won’t they

Sterling continued its recent momentum starting of November on the front foot and continuing its rally that started on Friday. The recent gains were boosted further yesterday with a fifteenth consecutive increase in the UK manufacturing sector. Manufacturing PMI grew to 56.3 for October compared to 56  for September, anything above 50 indicates a increase in the sector. As a result we saw GBPUSD rise 0.2% and GBPEUR rise 0.3%  hitting highs since June against the single currency. The gains made over the last week has seen a purchase of 100,000 Euros fall by over £1000.

The main focus the last 2 weeks has been the Bank of England possible interest rate hike. Will they or won’t they increase the interest rates later today. With markets having largely priced in the possibility of a rate hike, with most investors stating that there is a 80% chance that we will see a rise, we could have possibly seen the peak of the recent increase on the exchange rates. However any hint of no rate hike would see the Pound spiral right back down to below to the levels we saw in September. Is that a risk you can afford to take? If sterling dropped 2% could you still afford that property you’ve been wanting to buy? Speak to one of our friendly brokers here at Currency Index to stay on top of things throughout the day.

Today’s data

Today is a very busy day on the markets with the much awaited rate hike decision. Before the rate hike at 12pm, we have Construction PMI at 9.30, this has been falling for the last 3 months, another negative figure could see sterling lose ground at the beginning of the day. At 12.30 today we have US unemployment claims and Carney’s speech, will he further hint at future rate hikes or explain that this could be it for the foreseeable future.

Should we see a rate hike and see GBP make significant ground, why not take advantage of our forward contract to secure that rate for you to protect yourself against any possible future losses and reduce your risk.