The pound was hustlin’ early during yesterday’s trading as it tapped its intraday high at 1.6081, before the dollar made a comeback like the McDonald’s McRib sandwhich. Duhn, duhn, duhn! GBP/USD then hit rock-bottom at 1.5962, ending the day at 1.6041 with a puny 5-pip win for the pound.
Drats! The pound could have snatched a bigger win from the Greenback if it wasn’t for the disappointing construction PMI for October.
Yesterday we saw that construction activity slowed during the month as the index hit its 8-month low at 51.6, and disappointed the market’s forecast which was at 53.0. Tsk, tsk. This might have ticked off a few bulls as the disappointment may just give the BOE one more reason to pull the QE trigger.
Having said that, you may want to be on the take note of today’s economic reports and see how they could affect the central bank’s decision tomorrow.
Earlier, we saw that retail prices in some stores increased by 2.2% on an annual basis in October according to a report by the British Retail Consortium. This is good news to the pound bulls as this implies that inflation was higher during the month than it was in September when the figure was only at 1.9%.
Later at 9:28 am GMT, we’ll get a glimpse of how the services sector is faring with the results of Markit’s purchasing managers’ survey. Analysts are anticipating to see that activity slowed a tad bit in October, with the consensus for the services PMI at 52.6, slightly lower than September’s 52.8 reading.
Be on your toes for a report on the housing industry as well. Halifax will be releasing its house price index anytime between today and Saturday around 8:00 am GMT. Note that a figure lower than the 0.6% growth forecast will probably send the pound into the bear lair as that would imply that the U.K.’s housing sector could be losing its flare. Hey, that rhymes! Ha!
That’s all I have for y’all today. Peace out!