Home Daily Commentaries Johnson and Corbyn lock horns

Johnson and Corbyn lock horns

Daily Currency Update

GBP - British PoundJohnson and Corbyn had their first official televised debate of this general election campaign last night. It was a fairly uneventful event and has come with backlash online, with Nicola Sturgeon claiming that neither individual was ‘fit’ to run the country. They clashed on many topics including the NHS, state of the UK, the Royal Family and trust going forward. As has been the case of late however, Brexit was the most spoken about topic of the evening, filling the first half of the debate. Unsurprisingly, Johnson claimed he is attempting to give the people what they voted for and wanted to end the countries’ misery. On the other side, Corbyn avoided voicing his opinion and claimed he would agree a deal and put it to the public. A YouGov poll suggested the vote was fairly even, with labour voters backing a Corbyn win and Tory voters backing Johnson. GBP was fairly muted on the back of this debate, however as December 12th draws closer, expect debate results to affect pound strength. 2 key dates to diarise are:1. November 29th - Seven-way podium debate between major political parties2. December 6th - Conservative vs Tory debate

Key Movers

The USD and EUR remained fairly muted on Tuesday and early-morning Wednesday. This may not be the case over the next few days however as the FOMC and ECB monetary policy meeting minutes are released. The key points to take from the release will be the economic outlook going forward. The Eurozone is struggling economically and fears of US implementing tariff's on the bloc is denting confidence and therefore FDI. A negatively revised outlook for the bloc wouldn't be a surprise and this should dent the Euro, pushing GBP/EUR back towards the 1.17 handle.Across the pond, the US is beginning to feel the spill over affect from the US-China trade war, however to a lesser extent to the majority of other global economies. US-China talks have been halted once again due to the rising political tensions in Hong Kong. The aim is still to get the 'Phase 1' agreement signed by the end of 2019, in order to sort the fine details by the end of Q1 2020.

Expected Ranges

  • GBP/USD: 1.2820 - 1.2960 ▼
  • GBP/EUR: 1.1610 - 1.1765 ▼
  • GBP/AUD: 1.8895 - 1.9045 ▼