GBPUSD, H1
The Dollar has traded moderately softer in thinning year-end markets. This has seen the narrow trade-weighted USD Index (DXY) ebb to a low of 97.30, down from the one-week high seen yesterday at 97.47.
A rebound in Cable has weighed on the US currency, with Sterling finding a footing after plunging by nearly 3.5% from last week’s post-UK election rally high at 1.3515. Cable’s low yesterday was 1.3060, and the pair has since recovered to the lower 1.3100s, though still remains over half a big figure below the levels that were prevailing ahead of the election.
The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee has amid its final meeting of the year, and will announce at 12:00 GMT in London today. No change to prevailing settings is widely anticipated, though there will be a focus on the two dissenters, Saunders and Haskell, who last month voted for a 25 bps cut in the repo rate, to see if they will maintain their dovish dissent in light of the strong victory of the Conservative Party at last week’s election. Either way, we expect the BoE to remain on a neutral footing heading into 2020, though, with inflation running at three-year lows at 1.5% y/y, comfortably below target, the BoE won’t be in any rush shift to a tightening bias.
Elsewhere in forex markets, EURUSD lifted out of the one-week low seen yesterday at 1.1100, but remains mired in narrow ranges in what is now the sixth consecutive session trading on a 1.11 handle. USDJPY has also continued to ply narrow ranges, pivoting through though the pair still managed to scratch out a six-day high at 109.68, which is 2 pips shy of the 17-day high seen last Friday, and 4 pips shy of the seven-month peak seen on December 2. The Australian dollar recovered the losses seen following the wake of the RBA minutes on Tuesday following an above-forecast 39.9k gain in employment, along with an unexpected dip in the jobless rate to 5.2%, from 5.3%. AUDUSD posted a two-day high at 0.6883 moving some 0.42% during the Asian session.
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Stuart Cowell
Head Market Analyst
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