Quiet start to the week

It was a relatively quiet start to the week in the foreign exchange markets, with the dollar continuing to drift a little higher against the euro to trade at close to the $1.14 level this morning, which is a gain of around a cent from last week’s post Fed meeting lows.  The euro-sterling rate remains in consolidation mode for now, still trading in and around 87.5p, while the pound is edging lower against the dollar and is currently trading just shy of $1.3050

Bond yields in the core markets continue to nudge higher led by the US, where 10-year yields have reversed last week’s Fed related fall and are now back above 2.70% propelled higher by Friday’s stronger than expected (US) jobs report.

Retail sales in the UK posted a solid start to 2019 according to the latest British Retail Consortium (BRC) report, with like-for-like sales increasing by almost 2% year-on-year in January. Construction activity was relatively subdued last month though, with the PMI for the sector falling to 50.6, just above the expansion-contraction threshold of 50

Today Prime Minister May makes a Break for the Border, giving a speech on Brexit in Northern Ireland, while President Trump delivers his (delayed) State of the Union address

On the data front, services PMIs are due in the main economies, while the ISM index of non-manufacturing activity is scheduled in the US