News that UK inflation was back above 2.0% meant little to the pound, which remained glum as it digested the latest Brexit events.
At 2.1%, April’s CPI reading was ahead of March’s 1.9%; however, it did miss analysts’ 2.2% estimates, explaining why the figure didn’t do much for sterling. Instead the currency was preoccupied by Theresa May’s failed ‘new deal’ launch, speculation that a 4th vote might now not even go ahead in early June, and the prospect of a Tory leadership battle that would likely result in a hard line Brexiter in power.
Against the dollar the pound was down 0.2%, sat at a near 2019 low of $1.267; against the euro, meanwhile, it fell 0.4% to sink towards a fresh 3-month nadir of €1.134. This – alongside a broader continuation of yesterday’s rebound that saw the DAX and CAC up 0.5% and 0.3% respectively – sent the FTSE 0.6% higher, pushing the UK index to a 3-week peak.
The Dow Jones futures are currently less enthusiastic than their European peers, perhaps because of reports that the US is looking for other Chinese firms to blacklist. Still, it wouldn’t take a lot for the index to cross 25900 and reach a near 2-week high, even if it has failed to hold above that level multiple times in the last fortnight.
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