Morning Bulletin

Yesterday

• GBP/USD opened at 1.3344 yesterday before trading a high of 1.3421 and closing at 1.3378.
• GBP/EUR closed at 1.1414 after opening at 1.1406 trading a high of 1.1444 and a low of 1.1393.
• UK retail sales came in much better than expected at 1.6% vs 0.8%. The increase would put down to a return of fuel sales in April after snow hit sales in March.
• US unemployment claims were up on the previous figure and higher than anticipated coming in at 234K vs the estimated 220K.
• US home sales also came in weaker than expected at 5.46M vs 5.56M.
• US President Trump yesterday cancelled the scheduled meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump blamed Pyongyang’s “open hostility” for the cancellation. The meeting would have been the first between a sitting US president had met a North Korean leader.
• Trump added that he had been looking forward to the meeting and North Korean vice-foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan said Trump’s decision was ‘deeply regrettable’.

• GBP/AUD, GBP/JPY and GBP/NZD are trading 1.7603, 146.29 and 1.9260.

• This morning German ifo business climate came in as expected at 102.0.
• At 1.30pm we have core durable goods orders m/m from the US.
• After that we will hear from Bank of England Governor Carney and Fed Chair Powell.
• The last piece of data comes from the US with revised UoM consumer sentiment at 3pm.