A lack of resignations following last Thursday’s initial flurry of Cabinet departures, and the ongoing failure of the much-discussed 48 letters of no confidence to actually materialise, meant the pound saw a slight, fragile rebound Monday.
With no real UK data worth paying attention to this week, the focus is terrifyingly going to be entirely on Brexit, the key events – or at least those that are predictable – including Mark Carney’s appearance in front of the Treasury Committee and Theresa May’s trip to Brussels.
Fair play to the pound, then, for not crumbling at the sight of another week of Brexit uncertainty. Against the dollar it was up 0.3% and back above $1.287, while against the euro it rose the same amount, taking sterling the right side of €1.127 (still pretty horrendous given that before the Brexit draft deal was announced it was teasing $1.305 and €1.155 respectively).
As for the FTSE, it wasn’t up to too much after the bell. To be honest, that’s been the case for the UK index throughout most of November; despite all the political drama, it has drifted between 7000 and 7150 for the entire month, only recently seeming to settle at the bottom end of that range.
Even in the context of this quiet, Thanksgiving-dampened week Monday is a bust calendar-wise, meaning the UK markets are extra-exposed – if they weren’t sensitive enough already – to any political twists and turns as the session goes on.
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