Pound Sterling forecast page 15 - gbp pound sterling pound sterling

The UK suffered its first credit downgrade since the dark days of the 1970s late on Friday and the POUND STERLING has lacked support on the day as a consequence. Sterling has sustained particularly heavy losses against the other European currencies, suggesting that institutional investors are shifting their funds en masse out of the UK...

For some months now, a dark and threatening cloud has hung over Britain. All three of the world’s leading credit ratings agencies placed the UK on ‘creditwatch’ during the latter part of 2012, meaning that there was a realistic chance that she would lose her highly-valued AAA credit rating. Late last Friday, after the European equities...

There was distinctly mixed news from the eurozone today. The latest German GDP data revealed that economic activity in the giant Teutonic economy had contracted by 0.6% during the final three months of last year. Although the market had been expecting a showing at around this level for the finalised Q4 print, it still served as a reminder to...

The overnight rally for the US Dollar which followed the release of the latest set of Federal Reserve FOMC minutes late on Wednesday was partially reversed during yesterday’s session. The pro-Dollar move, which sent the GBP USD exchange rate down to a new 31-month low at 1.5131 during Asian trading proved to be a whipsaw – by the European...

The POUND STERLING has enjoyed a ‘bounce’ on the day today, following yesterday’s disappointing performance. The move in favour of the UK tender has come in spite of this morning’s British public sector borrowing figure which revealed that the coalition government has borrowed a mammoth £93.8bn so far this financial year. Given this,...

The apparently gravity-defying accumulation in the value of global equities over recent months was placed in peril by the tone and language used in last night’s Federal Reserve FOMC Minutes. The notes from the Fed’s February policy meeting acknowledged the danger which scaling back the US central bank’s controversial Quantitative Easing...

A lot of column inches have been written in recent weeks concerning the next Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, but it was the current incumbent of the top job at The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street who stole the limelight today. This morning’s minutes of this month’s Bank of England policy meeting revealed that three of the...

Global appetite for risk had been buoyant during the early part of this week’s session, but the ‘risk on’ trading environment has been endangered by a series of potentially damaging events in the last few hours. Last night’s session brought worrying news from Japan, with the release of data which showed that Asia’s second most...

The AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR has registered healthy gains against Sterling following last night’s minutes of the most recent Reserve bank of Australia meeting. The memos were generally of a more go-ahead tone than analysts had been anticipating, noting strong demand for Australian commodities from Asia and an improvement in the global economic...

A light schedule of global data releases during yesterday’s session meant that investors placed increased focus on public comments from policymakers and central bankers. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy took to the lectern to deliver a set piece speech defending the controversial eurozone-wide budgetary pact which the region’s...