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April 29th Market Updates

Mixed day’s trading for the Pound on Friday.
Against the Euro the Pound traded fairly flat on the day but did ever slightly higher towards the 1.1600 handle with GBP/EUR closing at 1.1585 and up just +0.03% on the day.
The Pound did make more solid gains against the US Dollar however, closing up +0.27% at 1.2932, a solid recovery from a weeks low of 1.2865 which occurred Thursday morning.
The most recent UK CBI survey of industrial order expectations revealed that business optimism continued to decline in April with the reading at -5, down from +1 in March. The quarterly survey also reported that UK factories have been stockpiling at the fastest rate since the 1950’s as the try to counter the potential impact of Brexit.
Speaking on Friday, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond said he was hopeful they could reach a compromise with the Labour party on Brexit that would allow the PM’s thrice defeated deal to get through Parliament. The Chancellor added that he was optimistic that the two parties could find common ground.
The US economy accelerated at a far greater pace than expected during the first quarter of 2019. GDP for Q1 rocketed to 3.2% on an annualized basis, that was a whole percentage point higher than the 2.2% forecast. The economy was boosted by a surge in exports and decline in imports and also by an increase in government investment.
US Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment 97.2 (97.1 Exp)

Over The Weekend

The current Governing Socialists party won their third election in four years in Spain over the weekend. The Socialists polled 29% of the vote but will need to form a coalition with either a left-wing or centre right party in order to form a Government. One big headline was the collapse of the Popular Party (PP) which saw their number of seats drop from 137 to 66. Also for the first time since the 1970’s, a far right party is set to enter Parliament, with Vox winning 10% of the vote.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor (S&P) left Italy’s sovereign debt unchanged at BBB on Friday. That is just a notch above junk, as the S&P said the outlook for Italy remains negative due the Government failing to implement the necessary reforms amid global uncertainty.
US President Trump has said he could see the US and Japan signing a new trade deal as early as May as the President expressed confidence that the two countries could quickly work through their differences over trade barriers in industries including automotive and agriculture.

Today

Incredibly quiet on the economic data front today. This afternoon there are a couple of releases out of the United States.

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