Sterling traded lower against all 16 of the most actively traded currencies by the London close yesterday with inflation figures doing nothing to change the view that UK rates remain on hold for some time yet. The release today of the minutes of the August Bank of England policy meeting has reinforced this outlook as policy members voted 8-1 to keep Interest rates on hold. As anticipated Andrew Sentence has voted for a rate hike for the third consecutive month, whilst stating that consumer prices will need to be closely …

The euro and pound have both been in full retreat against the US dollar on Wednesday (August 11). One euro is worth just $1.2845 after trading as high as $1.3226 on Tuesday. A British pound nets $1.5636 after a $1.589 peak Tuesday.

Following one of the most highly anticipated events in the economic calendar the Federal Reserve presented a gloomy outlook for the US economy in its post meeting statement yesterday, saying that the pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated.
Committee members went on to say as a number of factors including high unemployment and a depressed housing market weighed on activity over the last few months and announced fresh steps aimed at supporting recovery, saying that it would use …

Overnight movement with Sterling following the weakest RICS Housing data release in a year added to the downward GBP momentum built yesterday as expectations of a dovish BOE coupled with the risk that too much QE is priced for the FED saw cable break 1.5840 support to touch 1.5773
Yesterday was a quiet session for US markets, showing how significant tonight’s FED decision will be. While no change to official US interest rates is anticipated this evening, there is much speculation as to whether the Fed will announce fresh quantitative easing …

The price of gold is currently (August 5) just below $1,195 after it briefly touched $1,200 on August 4th. Gold prices have been on a rebound after more than a $100 downward correction from the all-time high in late June of $1,261.

Following on from the BoE Interest announcement today – Bank of England Governor Mervyn King is setting aside his inflation target to protect the economy from the biggest budget cuts since World War II. As a split widens on the Monetary Policy Committee on the danger posed by rising prices, King insists it may be a “considerable” time before the benchmark interest rate of 0.5 percent returns to “normal.” The nine-member panel are certainly dovish in terms of their stance on interest rates, growth and Inflation however inititally following the …