The pound has been flying high over the past few days, with a 1%-plus improvement against the euro and three-year high against the US dollar.
However, this is despite the increasing possibility of the Bank of England not just cutting interest rates by 25 basis points next week, but signalling that those cuts will be stepped up. This is likely to affect sterling pairs negatively.
Although we’re in a period of slow data for the UK, there is a mass of industrial data from the USA and eurozone. Yesterday we heard that the US employment market is loosening, with job openings down by nearly 300,000 in March.
The star of the recent European economy, Spain, recorded a small slackening off its economic growth, with annualised GDP slipping to 2.8% following the first quarter of 2025. Eurozone economic confidence slipped, with consumers at their most pessimistic since November 2023.
In business news, the big story was a spat breaking out between the Trump administration and Amazon yesterday, after reports that the online retailer would show the impact of tariffs alongside prices on the site. The plan – apparently mooted but never passed – was swiftly shelved.
There were reports from the World Bank that Commodity prices are likely to fall by 12% this year and even further in 2026. It predicts oil, for example, down to $64 per barrel. Good news for some, but the World Bank warns of serious effects for poorer countries relying on exports.
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