The day was understandably dominated by the US election results, but there was some economic data from the UK in the form of the Halifax house price index. Year-on-year, the figure came in at 1.5% which was higher than the 1.2% the markets had been expecting, but is a marked drop down from the 2.5% recorded in the previous period. It is the lowest annual increase in house prices since March 2013, but remained within Halifax’s forecast annual growth range of 0.3%.
On a monthly basis, house prices increased 0.7% in October following two consecutive months of falling prices. None of this had a bearing on sterling, which strengthened against the dollar like a raft of currencies around the world.
With no major economic data releases in the UK today, attention will turn to any Brexit-related news, as well as economic events elsewhere. Tomorrow is an extremely busy day though, with September’s balance of trade figures on the schedule, as well as the GDP growth rate for the third quarter of 2018. We could see some sterling moves following the release, although in which direction is entirely dependent on whether the figures are disappointing or not.
