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Today, we stand to see further advancement in US politics, with the new President meeting his first world leader, post-election, with Japan’s Abe passing through town. We’ll also see Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve testifying before the Joint Economic Committee today at 4PM, which will be the first time we’ve publicly seen her since the election of Trump.
Furthermore, late last night Fox’s Maria Bartiromo suggested that the US Treasury secretary role will be decided today (announced tomorrow) and is down to a choice between Jamie Dimon of JPM and Steve Mnuchin. Both have hard-core Wall Street experience too, so this will be one to watch over the next couple of days.
News from the Eurozone
Meanwhile in the Eurozone we have the Italian constitutional referendum coming up for early December, followed by the ECB meeting in which we are likely to see an announcement of further QE, so expect the euro to be volatile during this period and quite possibly weaken further.
Sale of government holdings in RBS frozen
In the corporate world, a possible US fine of between $5B and $12B has frozen any further sale of the government’s holdings in RBS. Oliver Holbourn, Chief Executive of UKFI (the organisation that advises the government on the sale of assets) stated that times were too uncertain to make any further progress currently and that the share price is too unstable to take immediate action.
Data to come
In terms of macroeconomic data today, the most important release for the UK will be Retail Sales figures due out at 10:30AM – the forecast is 0.5% against a previous release of 0%. Should the data release follow forecast, we can expect to see Sterling’s strength continue across all pairings today.
Meanwhile, we have a busy day in the US with Unemployment Claims, monthly CPI data, building permit figures and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index all due out at 2:30PM; so expect to see some volatility in the GBPUSD pairing today.
