Hawkish comments from an FOMC voter has strengthened dollar overnight, pulling the greenback higher against most crosses.

Kansas Fed President Dr. Thomas Hoeing gave a warning about the inflation problems America could be facing in the near term and mentioned that he would be unwilling to support further cuts. This falls in line with our thoughts from the accompanying statement to last week’s Fed rate cut that the cycle of cuts may be over and stability will be the focus in coming months.

Confidence measures continue to fall across the world and most recently in the UK. Last night Nationwide Consumer Confidence fell to another all-time low and combined with yesterday’s weaker than expected services survey futures markets have increased the probability of a cut this Thursday by the MPC; we still however feel a hold is the likely option.

Commodity currencies have continued to strengthen on the back of more records in crude oil prices. The RBA also held deposit rates at 7.25% amid weakening in the Australian economy. 

GBPUSD 1.9614 1.9646

EURUSD 1.5480 1.5505

GBPJPY 205.02 207.15

GBPAUD 2.0702 2.0755

GBPNZD 2.4933 2.4991

GBPCAD 1.9633 1.9685

GBPZAR 14.74 14.80

USDZAR 7.51 7.55

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The above comments are only our views and should not be construed as advice. You should act using your own information and judgement. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute the authors own judgement as of the date of the briefing and are subject to change without notice.

Any rates given are interbank and therefore for amounts of £5million and so are not indicative of rates offered by World First for smaller amounts.