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Tag: FXB

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Sterling Digest, March 11 2013: the charts that worry

Various denominations of GBP in regular visible light
Price doesn’t look this pretty

Sterling did produce a correction rally last week as $GBPUSD made a high at 1.5200, $GBPAUD as high as 1.4850; $GBPNZD as high as 1.8350; $GBPCAD as high as 1.5650; and $EURGBP as low as 0.8590. These rallies, for the most part, kept GBP below previous long term lows. This technical development was certainly the case for the $GBPUSD, $EURGBP, and $GBPNZD where all pairs have broken long term support levels. While the BoE did not move on additional QE, the surprising development of the week was the BoE’s possible change to a dual mandate to combat both inflation and unemployment. With this new trading week very light out of the UK, expect sterling price to continue to weaken across the board. While US news and the RBNZ rate decision will influence those respective currency pairs, the protocol with sterling is clearly to sell the rallies.

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Sterling Digest, March 4 2013: more stimulus possible

Financial Times front page on September 17 1992
Could history repeat?

As expected, sterling continued its descent and dropped to new lows last week as traders began to short GBP en masse. However, when much-lower-than-expected UK manufacturing PMI failed to produce a selloff on Friday, it became clear to me that perhaps sterling may be due for a bit of a correction. This week, traders are treated to rate decisions from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, Bank of England and the European Central Bank. With poor economic data in the UK and the revelation of more MPC members in favor of additional monetary stimulus, the BoE could surprise the market with more accommodative policies. Any dovish announcement will see sterling break to new lows while a hold on policy could fuel a GBP corrective rally. It should be an interesting week.

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Sterling Digest, February 25 2013: hardly at extreme levels

KAL Cartoon in The Economist
Put GBP on the roof and you illustrate current sterling sentiment in the market

Sterling weakness accelerated last week and culminated in the UK loosing its AAA credit rating on Friday. Now that monetary policy is dovish, economic activity nil, and credit rating downgraded, sterling has entered this new week of trading with a trifecta of negativity. And yet traders are hardly short GBP yet. In fact, I don’t think we will have reached extreme levels of short GBP trades until, $GBPUSD trades at 1.4750, $EURGBP at 0.8900, $GBPAUD trades below 1.4500, $GBPCAD below 1.5400, and $GBPNZD below 1.8000. Until price gets to those levels, expect corrections to be short-lived as the weak sterling trade gains momentum.

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Sterling Digest, February 18 2013: serious shifting

New Design of UK Pound Sterling Coins, Flickr
GBP shifts bearish but not everyone agrees

One of the most interesting bits of news last week that went largely unnoticed was Ray Dalio’s positive take on sterling. Talk about a bold, bullish call in the face of new lows and poor fundamentals. While the week ended with sterling rallying on profit-taking, GBP pairs are still very bearish. $GBPUSD, in particular, is especially vulnerable as it finally shifts below the major 1.5500 level. The $EURGBP is the most bullish GBP pair but that comes at the whim of a weak euro. However, the market hasn’t quite made that weak euro shift yet. And the $GBPNZD has staged a breakout to the downside after 2 years of consolidation. With the BoE minutes and unemployment numbers the only UK releases this week and profit-taking already underway, watch for GBP pairs to shift back to their long-term bear trends or move higher still on more price correction.

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Sterling Digest, February 11 2013: a fading rally

Kipper Williams cartoon, The Guardian
So Carney is not the UK’s savior?

GBP ended last week in consolidation as the technicals were helped in large part to the fundamentals when UK economic data surprised on the strong side and incoming B0E governor Carney surprised markets by steering clear of his dovish Davos comments on monetary policy. All this helped sterling rally last week to new highs across the board. This week holds a light economic calendar from the UK which may allow sterling to continue its consolidation rally. However, watch the current market sentiment to change on a whiff of bad news. With CPI, retail sales, and the BoE Inflation Report out this week, any of these news events has the potential to send sterling back on its long term bear trend.

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Sterling Digest, May 23, 2012: flip-flop

Bank-of-England-Logo
Bank of England logo

Adam Posen’s flip-flop on QE makes the Bank of England more dovish especially as economic data continues to deteriorate at an alarmingly fast rate. While the $GBPUSD and $GBPJPY have been sterling weak, these pairs’ move lower is also tied to increased risk aversion. Conversely, sterling has remained very robust against the commodity dollars. Both the $GBPAUD and $GBPNZD have already made new highs on the week. Will tomorrow’s UK GDP release be the final nail in the GBP coffin?

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Sterling Digest, May 22 2012: mixing business and pleasure

G8 summit
Could be a G8 reaction to markets

G8 summit leaders enjoyed their weekend in a retreat, unconference with very mixed reaction from markets. The open was spent violently going nowhere as cable is still bouncing around 1.58. No momentum or conviction on either side. Sounds like opposing G8 stances, doesn’t it. As the news week gets underway a huge drop in UK inflation that has hit its lowest levels in over a year. Less inflation leaves the door open for more QE at a time where economic data has not been supporting the hawks at the BoE. The market looks ahead to the BoE minutes release tomorrow to see if recent hawks have new dovish feathers.

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