Daily Currency Update

GBP - British Pound

As the pound finds itself in the position of the market's best performing currency year-to-date, attention will well and truly shift to Prime Minister Johnson's announcement this evening regarding the next steps in the UK lockdown. The success and speed of the UK vaccine rollout and lowering 'R' rate has seen market participants lap up Sterling since the start of the year with the important level of GBP/USD 1.40 being broken last week. Significantly it isn't just against the Dollar that the Pound is surging against, a number of key levels against the Euro have also been chalked off and we currently sit above GBP/EUR 1.15. The composite PMI numbers at the back end of last week swept aside expectations adding fuel to the Sterling fire. We should expect some jostling today before Johnson's announcement this evening but if the PM is particularly optimistic then GBP/USD 1.40 could be breached once again along with GBP/EUR 1.16.

Key Movers

The US Dollar is playing up at the moment with Friday also seeing USD/JPY drop back towards the 105 level. The weak dollar story is also evident in AUS/USD which broke 0.7900 overnight, aided by the crazy copper prices at the moment ($9,000/tonne for the first time since 2011). This dollar story however isn't spilling over too much into EUR/USD which finds itself limited in any gains. EUR/USD 1.2160 is the next significant level for the pair but perhaps comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could add some life to the market's largest currency pair. It certainly needs a spark.

Expected Ranges