While most of the market has traded sideways today, we have seen the British Pound firmly on the front foot. The Pound went all the way from 1.1180 to 1.1414 today as new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed most of the mini-budget tax measures. The changes will see a planned cut in income tax scrapped, while a cap on energy bills that had been due to last two years is now only guaranteed until April next year when it will be reviewed. With the renewed jump in the Pound, we have seen the US dollar losing a bit of ground and is currently trading at 0.98 against the Euro. The strength in the GBP and the US dollar cooling down has given the Rand some scope to trade back toward the R18.00 level and is currently trading at R18.03.
After the wave of negative sentiment that crashed through the markets last week, we have seen that commodities are looking a lot better today than they did on Friday. Gold is trading at $1,662 per ounce, Platinum is trading at $917, and Palladium at $2,016. Brent Crude has also stopped its downward momentum of the last couple of days and is trading at $ 92.37 per barrel. With the data cupboard bare on the US side this week, we could see a brief halt in the momentum of the US dollar and could see EM currencies drifting stronger.
#Markets #GBP #Euro #Commodities
