Category: Daily blog

Pound under pressure but off lows

UK bond yields rose sharply and sterling weakened considerably yesterday amid concerns about the public finances and the position of the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, following the government’s climbdown on cuts to disability benefit spending, before a statement from Number 10 insisting the Chancellor was “going nowhere” helped to steady markets to some extent. The pound […]

Euro retreats from highs of over $1.18

The euro rose to an intra-day high of around $1.1830 against the dollar yesterday after comments by ECB Vice-President de Guindos  – expressing little concern about the currency’s recent appreciation and saying $1.20 would be “acceptable” but above this would be “complicated” – before retreating to under $1.18 after the release of somewhat better than […]

Euro grinding higher

Ahead of the July 9 deadline, a Bloomberg News report that the EU is willing to accept a trade arrangement with the US that includes a 10% tariff on many of its exports, but wants the US to commit to lower tariffs in some specific areas like cars and steel, is providing modest support to […]

US stocks at record highs

Amid a notable firming of Fed rate cut expectations, US bond yields fell sharply, US stocks rallied strongly, and the dollar lost considerable ground over the course of last week. The latter shed around 2 and 2.5 cents against the euro and sterling respectively, falling to its lowest levels since late 2021, and is trading […]

Some modest respite for the dollar

The euro’s rally against the dollar has stalled, for now at least, with the single currency trading at around $1.17 this morning (having dipped below this level overnight), down from highs yesterday of close to $1.1750, though it is still up some two cents from the close of play last Friday. Sterling is also off […]

Dollar’s slide continues

The dollar continues to weaken as expectations for Fed rate cuts later this year continue to harden, with a Wall Street Journal report that Donald Trump may name a successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell – whose term ends in May 2026 – earlier than usual, perhaps as soon as September, also weighing on the […]

Dollar sets new 2025 lows

While at first it seemed that Israel and Iran hadn’t got the Trump ceasefire memo, subsequent confirmation of a truce (however fragile) between the two sides, along with softer than expected US economic data, kept the dollar on the back foot during yesterday’s session. It fell to new 2025 lows against both the euro and […]

Dollar lower on Israel-Iran ceasefire

The surprise news overnight – announced by Donald Trump – that Israel and Iran have agreed a ‘complete and total’ ceasefire is weighing on the dollar this morning. The US currency, which lost quite a bit of ground during the course of yesterday’s session following dovish Fed interest rate talk, has weakened to $1.16 against […]

Oil and dollar rally somewhat following US strikes on Iran

The euro was trading above $1.15 for much of Friday, on news – at that time – that the US might be delaying any direct attack on Iran. However, that proved to be a false flag as the US did strike at nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend. That saw the dollar open this week […]

Market relief as Trump signals delay in Iran military decision

The Bank of England kept rates on hold at the June MPC meeting, as expected, and sterling gained just a touch on the euro briefly but is back trading at 85.5p, where it was prior to the MPC announcement, with the single currency staying over the 85p level at all times, which it broke above […]