020 7898 0500Although the Confederation for British Industry’s monthly industrial orders balance fell by two points to 11 in July 2018, it wasn’t as bad as the 9 the markets had been expecting. Sterling had a relatively good day against the euro and dollar, making some gains against both on what was a fairly quiet day for UK economic data.
However, we did learn that Theresa May has taken control of Brexit negotiations, which puts new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, on the sidelines somewhat. May announced that the Cabinet Office is now in charge of negotiations, with Raab deputising. The move came on the last sitting of the Commons before the summer recess.
We also learned that Britain’s factories continued growing last month, but many bosses are slashing investment plans as fears over a trade war and the final Brexit deal weigh heavily on their minds. The CBI reported that 18% of firms are more optimistic than there were three months ago, with 21% less optimistic.
Today we have UK finance mortgage approvals for June and CBI distributive trades for July.
