Sterling resumed its downward trajectory against the US dollar yesterday, hitting its lowest point since mid-March. It was a choppy day against the euro but with no clear direction.
The clear winner of the day was the US dollar, which made gains of around 1% on most major currencies, including GBP, EUR and AUD.
There was plenty of economic and business news yesterday, starting with house prices from the Nationwide, which showed that house prices fell in every region in the year to September. However, the fall was not quite as bad as the market expected.
It’s not just residential property suffering. The office-rental/proptech company WeWork missed an interest payment of $95 million and there is a risk of filing for bankruptcy. Meanwhile another former tech darling, crypto-currency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried went on trial in Manhattan for fraud.
There was a mixed global picture for manufacturing PMI. While the mood among manufacturers in just about every country was negative (a reading below 50), some were more negative than others. The USA had 49, Spain 47.7, the UK 44.3, the eurozone as a whole was 43.4 but Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse Germany was languishing at the bottom of the pack on 39.6.
However, the big economic event of the day was continuing rumours that prime minister Rishi Sunak will cancel the northern (Birmingham to Manchester) leg of the high speed rail link HS2.
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