020 7898 0500Sterling made some healthy gains against the euro yesterday, as the ECB announced it would be leaving interest rates unchanged for the foreseeable future. The pound traded within an extremely tight range against the dollar, perhaps in view of the fact that today we will see the GDP growth rates from the UK and US released. There are obviously several possible permutations, but were one to beat forecast and another disappoint, we could see some volatility.
Yesterday’s releases came in the form of the UK finance mortgage approvals for March which came in at 37,600 against an expectation of 37,100, and the CBI distributive trades for April. Somewhat disappointingly, it had been expected to move from -8 in March to +5, but the figure was actually -2.
We will also see the Gfk consumer confidence reading for April, which is expected to remain the same as last month at -7. In addition, we will see the Nationwide housing prices, and the Bank of England’s Mark Carney and Andy Haldane are due to give speeches. This too could cause some sterling movements; it all depends on whether they say anything of note and, if they do, what that anything of note is.
