The dollar gained a fair amount of ground against sterling yesterday as positive average earnings from the UK helped support the pound at the start of the day. Then came the news that many people have been waiting for, with UK and EU negotiators said to have agreed the Brexit withdrawal agreement text. Sterling took off soon after and climbed above the $1.30 mark.
In truth, it was a quiet day for US economic data, with only October’s consumer inflation expectations on the schedule. As expected, it came in at 3%. Towards the end of the day, we did see reports that John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, could be in line to lose their jobs.
October’s inflation rate for the US is on the schedule today and is expected to climb to 2.5% from 2.3% the previous period. If nothing else, this will cement the belief that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in December. The question is how many can we expect in 2019?
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