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Stocks rally on US stimulus package

Daily Currency Update

GBP - British PoundIt was a good day for sterling yesterday with GBP/USD rallying after a combination of the pound pushing higher after the implementation of UK PM Boris Johnsons lockdown and broad based USD weaknesss after a flight to its safety subsided a little. With the UK now being told to stay at home unless absolutely necessary, many usually packed streets are empty as people avoid social contact in a national effort to try and avoid Coronavirus spreading around the UK like it has in Italy and Spain. Police will have the power to hand out fines for gatherings of friends by the end of this week as the government tries to take the bull by the horns and flatten the curve of infection.Despite the stay at home rules coming into effect there was a rise in deaths to 422 in the UK with over 8000 confirmed cases. In an effort to fight the upcoming deluge of cases due over the next couple of weeks the Excel Centre in East London has been turned into a makeshift hospital with capacity for around 4000 beds once fully up and running next week.GBP/USD is up to 1.19 a five cent rally in less than a week. GBP/EUR is up to 1.10 as confidence returns (for now) to the pound.

Key Movers

There was mixed news out of Italy yesterday as deaths rose by 743, its second largest rise however the rate of infection declined for the third day in a row, indicating that we may be near the peak of the outbreak in the world's worst affected country. Spain, Europe's second worst affected area saw 514 deaths reported yesterday taking the total to nearly 2700 with nearly 40k people now confirmed as having Covid-19.New York continues the bear the brunt of infections in the States with cases doubling every three days. Despite this grave situation Donald trump yesterday insisted that he wants America back to work by Easter, less than three weeks from now. Many see this target as optimistic at best as cases continue to sky rocket however the Dow Jones saw its biggest one day surge since 1933 rising 11.4% reclaiming the 21k handle. The approval of a US stimulus package and the Federal Reserves unlimited QE programme appear to have calmed markets around the world along with the number of new cases in China appearing to have ceased. All European and Asian markets are higher today and the commodity currencies have rallied with AUD/USD pushing up to 0.6060 and NZD/USD above .59. EUR/USD is at 1.08 with USD/JPY at 111.3

Expected Ranges

  • GBP/USD: 1.17 - 1.20 ▲
  • GBP/EUR: 1.0880 - 1.1090 ▲
  • GBP/AUD: 1.9545 - 1.98 ▼
  • GBP/NZD: 2.0160 - 2.04 ▲
  • GBP/CAD: 1.6940 - 1.7120 ▲