Pound (GBP) Rises as Brexit Hopes Rise on May’s Call for Cross-Party Consensus

Published: 30 Apr at 5 PM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, UK, Eurozone, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, China, Germany,

Pound Sterling (GBP)

The Pound (GBP) rocketed against many of its competitors today’s following Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement that she expected cross-party talks to conclude by the end of next week.

Mrs May’s spokesman said:

‘Cabinet received an update on the Brexit talks with the opposition, including the negotiations last night, which were serious and constructive. Further talks will now be scheduled in order to bring the process toward a conclusion.’

Today also saw the publication of the UK GfK consumer confidence figures which, however, remained static at -13. These were overshadowed by Brexit news.

US Dollar (USD)

The US Dollar (USD) struggled today following the publication of the US Chicago Purchasing Manages’ Index figures for April, which slump below the forecast 59.0 to 52.6.

This has caused some concern that the US economy is beginning to show signs of slowing down.

Although with China’s economic slowdown, the US Dollar did manage to benefit from its safe-haven status as traders flee more risk-correlated currencies like the Australian Dollar.

Euro (EUR)

The Euro (EUR) failed to gain against the strong Pound (GBP) today despite encouraging flash Eurozone GDP figures for the first-quarter, which exceeded expectation by rising to 0.4%.

These were followed by the flash German Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices figures for April, which also rose above forecast, increasing to 2.1%.

The Euro benefited, however, from Michel Barnier’s urging of the UK to conclude cross-party Brexit talks.

Australian Dollar (AUD)

The Australian Dollar (AUD) was beset by global economic concerns following China’s easing manufacturing PMI figures today.

However, many ‘Aussie’ traders will be awaiting this evening’s publication of the AiG Performance of Manufacturing Index figures for April, and with any signs of improvement, this could provide some uplift for the GBP/AUD exchange rate.

New Zealand Dollar (NZD)

The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) fell against most major currencies today as the weakening Chinese data had hit the risk-averse ‘Kiwi’ as traders fled for safe-haven currencies.

The ‘Kiwi’ was also affected by weak ANZ business confidence figures for April, which came in at a disappointing -37.5 – although this was better-than-expected.

Canadian Dollar (CAD)

The Canadian Dollar (CAD) was hit by worse-than-expected GDP figures for February today, which fell to -0.1%.

However, the ‘Loonie’ was redeemed by Stephen Poloz, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who commented that the Canadian economy would likely recover in the second-half of the year.

As of Tuesday, 30th April 2019, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.1623, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.3032, GBP AUD exchange rate was 1.8499, GBP NZD exchange rate was 1.9613, GBP CAD exchange rate was 1.746, and GBP CNY exchange rate was 8.7769.

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