Sterling managed to widen its Friday growth this afternoon, fuelled by the very meagre progress made between the UK and EU at the summit in Brussels.
European Council President Donald Tusk’s confirmation that the EU had green-lit internal discussions regarding the bloc’s trade talks with the UK appeared to be the catalyst for the pound’s gains – comments, incidentally, that overshadowed Theresa May’s pretty damn vague press conference a few minutes later. This meant cable reversed its 0.3% decline, instead climbing back towards $1.318 with a 0.2% rise, while against the euro the pound jumped 0.6%, surging nearly a cent in the process.
That remarkable move against the euro isn’t all due to sterling strength, however. The eurozone currency is on the back foot, pairing its losses against the pound with a 0.3% decline against the dollar. In doing so the euro has reversed much of Thursday’s growth, with investors perhaps catching a case of the jitters ahead of the imposition of direct rule on Catalonia by the Spanish government on Saturday.
Elsewhere the Western indices were far less exciting than their forex counterparts. Having looked set for a record high-hitting climb the FTSE came over all shy this Friday, reducing its early growth to just 10 or so points. The DAX dipped back under 13000 as its gains dissipated, while the Spanish IBEX jumped 0.4%. As for the Dow Jones, after promising a 100 point rise in the pre-market the US index ending up disappointing after the bell, instead adding around 0.3%.
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