It was all a bit tentative out there this Friday, as investors wait to get a look at the first glimpse of the UK’s (and, later, US’s) Q1 GDP readings.
Given that there’s a Bank of England meeting in a couple of weeks – once a rate hike-certainty, now anything but – the focus of the first quarter growth figure from the UK will be on its potentially hawkish or dovish qualities. Not necessarily great news for the likes of Ian McCafferty and Michael Saunders, then, that analysts are expecting the GDP reading to come in somewhere between 0.2% and 0.3%, a ‘Beast from the East’-inspired drop from Q4’s still disappointing 0.4%.
The prospect of such flaccidity from the UK economy has the pound feeling unsure of itself. Against the dollar it is down 0.2%, barely holding above $1.39 at a 6 and a half week low. Sterling is actually up 0.1% against the euro, yet that is more due to the single currency’s post-ECB decline that any strength on the pound’s behalf. The FTSE is just as reticent to do anything too bold, though it is at a fresh 12 week peak.
As for the Eurozone indices, while the CAC is sat flat, admittedly the right side of 5400, the DAX is clearly still riding high after Thursday’s ECB meeting. The German index jumped 0.7%, a move that had it knocking on the door of 12600, the top end of the second half of April’s trading bracket.
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