The pound strengthened against the euro and the dollar yesterday and is still strong this morning due to Brexit optimism and positive vaccine news.
Reports surrounding Brexit negotiations suggest that a deal will be closed soon. The Irish Prime Minister, Michael Martin, said yesterday that the outline of a Brexit deal should be drawn out by the end of this week.
Yesterday it was announced that the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine is 70% effective and could be up to 90% effective if administered in two doses. More countries have this vaccine on order than any other and it’s thought that it will be faster to produce and distribute than the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
PMI data for the UK came in better than expected yesterday. However, manufacturing was the only figure that stayed in expansion territory, with both services and composite (which tracks business trends across both the manufacturing and service sectors) falling into contraction.
