Archive

Renaissance After a fortnight of almost constant retreat sterling has rediscovered its mojo. On the week it is an average of 2.6% stronger against the other dozen most actively-traded...

Common cause for failure The pound’s stubborn insistence on putting its worst foot forward ensured that it was the back marker for a second week, achieving a 100% record...

As you were January was not even into double figures before sterling had abandoned its new year’s resolutions. Investors clearly cannot stop worrying about it or forget about what...

All change A reversal of the previous week’s trends saw the “risky” emerging market and commodity-related currencies under pressure while the safe-haven yen put in the second-strongest performance. The...

Identifying a theme Looking back it seems that there was, after all, a theme to the last week’s exchange rate movements: by and large the allegedly “risky” commodity-related and...

Getting over it In the run-up to last weekend two specific political risks exercised investors. One was the run-off of Austria’s presidential election, where a crypto-green independent was facing...

A two-way street Sterling’s smallest loss over the last seven days was a third of a euro cent. This demonstrates two things: that the pound’s recent run of strength...

Shaky euro It is instructive to look at the three destinations chosen by the outgoing US president for his farewell tour. Lima, Peru, was understandable enough: Barack Obama went...

Now there’s a surprise It all looked so easy a week ago. Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidential race and there was even a chance the Democrats...

Burning issues The hot topics of the week in financial markets were, surprise surprise, Brexit and the American elections. Both were surrounded by acrimony, outrage and accusation and both...