[B]Intra-Day Market Moving News and Views
10 Feb 2015[/B] [I]09:00GMT[/I]
[B]GBP/USD[/B] - ..... Reuters news reported Britain should hold a referendum on its membership of the EU as soon as possible to reduce the damaging impact of uncertainty, the head of business group British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said on Tuesday.
PM David Cameron has promised to renegotiate U.K.'s ties with the euro zone ahead of a referendum in 2017 if he is re-elected in May, but has said he would like to hold the membership vote sooner if possible.
The opposition Labour party, which is neck-and-neck with Cameron’s Conservatives in many polls ahead of May’s national election, only plans to hold a referendum if there is a significant transfer of powers from London to Brussels.
“Our members say that they actually want a referendum. There is obviously a debate around a referendum at the moment … that is creating uncertainty, so if we are going to have a referendum we ought to do it quickly,” John Longworth, Director General of the BCC told BBC radio. Longworth said if Labour was elected it would come under “huge pressure” to hold a referendum n that would create yet more uneasiness.
“We have to come to a conclusion on these things and move on … Uncertainty is bad for business,” he said.
In a speech to the BCC annual conference later, Longworth will say his members support staying in a reformed EU but warn of a situation where all decisions are made by, and for, the euro zone.
"Without true reform, business support for the European project is far fm guaranteed.
Earlier UK FinMin George Osborne says ‘danger of a miscalculation leading to very bad outcome between Greece n Eurozone is increasing.’
This morning Cable moves narrowly in quiet Asian trading after finding minor sup at 1.5200 just ahead of NY open Monday. Altough price staged a rebound in tandem with eur/usd, offers at 1.5245 capped intra-day bounce and price later traded inside a 1.5209-42 range for rest of NY session.
Yesterday’s weakness in sterling vs eur & yen in NY suggests intra-day downside bias remains for decline from Friday’s 1-month high at 1.5353 to resume once present sideways move is over, so selling cable on recovery is favoured.
At 09:30GMT, U.K. will release Dec industrial & manufacturing production.