A quiet day for sterling, ahead of Bank of England meeting

Published: 08 February, 2011

A quiet day for sterling yesterday with sterling holding onto gains against the euro and the US dollar, as the market waits for the Bank of England meeting on Thursday.

A quiet day for sterling yesterday with sterling holding onto gains against the euro and the US dollar, as the market waits for the Bank of England meeting on Thursday..

Currency rates

EURO/GBP - 1.1830

US$/GBP - 1.6137
CHF/GBP - 1.5386
CAN$/GBP - 1.5955
AUS$/GBP - 1.5842
ZAR/GBP - 11.6597
JPY/GBP - 132.30
HKD/GBP - 12.5551
NZD/GBP - 2.0793

SEK/GBP - 10.3755
US$/EURO - 1.3634

Talk of a rise in UK interest rates continues to be the fore but it is thought any increase at the Bank of England meeting is unlikely.

The euro, a bit like sterling, had a quiet day. The economic data that could influence matters has been somewhat sparse and the European Central Bank held its interest rate setting meeting last week and was very firmly in the camp for holding euro zone interest rates at their current level for the time being. Against the US$ the euro has lost a bit of ground over the last week but still sits towards the top end of the three month range.

And needless to say the US$ has been fairly steady over the last 24 hours. What is beginning to benefit the US$ is rising yields on US treasury bonds which are increasing as the US economic performance improves. The yield on two year government bonds hit their highest level since June of last year.

And the same again for the Australian dollar which held steady. A benign start to the week. Given our experience over the last three years it is hard to imagine it staying this way for long and as such I would give us a call to avoid the more than likely surprises.

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