Quiet Monday with Lack of Data

27 February, 2018

Simon Eastman

With a lack of any data out on Monday, the market was left to moving off investor sentiment, which as we have seen of late, is not with the pound.

Sterling dropped off from a high over the weekend against the euro, falling by nearly a cent despite UK mortgage approvals coming out better than expected. The pound was hit by more confusion and doubt over the Brexit negotiations as Theresa May was forced to come out and deny she would look to have a customs union with the EU once we leave after Jeremy Corbyn spent all day talking up the idea under a Labour government.

Today is another day off for UK data analysts as we have nothing to report so we will look to the EU which reveals money supply figures, economic sentiment and consumer confidence figures, while Germany releases their current inflation readings. If these come out higher than expected then we would expect the euro to continue its rally against the pound and for those looking to buy euros, you could see the cost increase as the day goes on.

After lunch, the US release some medium level data releases surrounding house prices and import/exports with a speech by one of the Fed members, so we could see some further movement once the US opens. Any poor readings may well help the euro as we have seen of late, due to the currency see-saw, which has benefitted the euro of late to the dollars detriment. Good for any US dollar buyers of course, but with trading levels up at the key psychological resistance ceiling of 1.4, its unlikely sterling will manage to benefit too much from any poor US data.