After tumbling to its lowest rate since 1971 following the Chancellor’s mini-budget announcement on Friday, sterling is still weak against both the dollar and the euro. Meanwhile some of the biggest mortgage lenders in the UK, including the likes of Halifax and Virgin Money, have withdrawn lending services in response to sterling’s fall.
Talks of an emergency BoE meeting surfaced yesterday afternoon, however the Bank opted not to do so and instead announced that it will address the pound’s recent turbulence in the November meeting as planned. The Bank’s decision, coupled with Kwarteng’s proposals for a new “medium-term” economic strategy to “bring debt down as a share of GDP” failed to reassure worried markets.
Eurozone data releases continue with France’s unemployment data at 11am today. Later in the week, markets can also expect more speeches from the European Central Bank, as well as Italy’s business confidence, and consumer confidence data tomorrow morning.
The dollar continues to gain strength as markets look to it as the ‘safe-haven’ currency.
Plenty of data will be released in the US this week. today, the key releases to watch (UK time) are durable goods orders MoM 1:30pm, and New home sales for August at 3pm.
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