Good morning
The US dollar lost some of its recent gains yesterday as inflation came in a little lower than expected, which takes some of the heat off the Fed to act quickly. If anything it could potentially show the Fed as being right when they talk of transitory upside inflation pressures. Still, tapering is still very much on the agenda, as evidenced by comments from Feds George who said she thinks it is time to dial back easy monetary policy.
UK GDP numbers were strong as expected this morning with a 1% MoM rise leading to a 4.8% rise for Q2, a strong rebound from the Q1 numbers when we were back in lockdown. GBP has seen limited reaction so far, GBPUSD slipped back just a few pips since the release, now 1.3860 but GBP still trades well against EUR, with EURGBP at 0.8465 (1.1815). I don’t think EU industrial production numbers later this morning will give EUR much of a boost
AUD is holding up well despite talk of a China slowdown and Canberra now going into lockdown in an attempt to contain delta variant infections, while New Zealand have confirmed their borders will stay closed until at least the end of this year, by which time they hope to have the population vaccinated.
Big news for today is the release of GCSE results. This is a big event for the Evans household as my daughter will be receiving hers. She is one of those people who are not only quite bright but also works hard, not sure where she gets that from. As such though she is hoping for a decent set of results. Given these results will have been calculated by her individual teachers, it will open up some interesting discussions if they are not quite what she expects. A disagreement over awarded grades is therefore a direct complaint to the teacher. Don’t really want any of that so lets hope she gets what she is hoping for. The headlines suggest this could be a year for record grades although our school seem to be one of the ones who are more conservative in their approach. We’ll see a little later this morning. Good luck to anyone else with kids/friends etc getting their GCSE grades today.
In Covid news, from Monday people who are double jabbed, or under 18, will not need to self-isolate if a close contact test positive. Instead they will be encouraged to take a PCR test. Seems reasonable to me although it will put more pressure on the PCR testing process which, judging by pictures earlier in the week, is struggling to cope with demand. Of course anyone with symptoms should still isolate and anyone who tests positive are legally required to solf-isolate.
In football news, my young Hares turned up to training yesterday full of enthusiasm which was nice to see. Not only that, they all seem to have grown again, no real surprise I suppose, given their age. I can still say I am taller than all of them but I reckon I won’t be able to say that by the end of the coming season.
- 10.00 EU industrial production
- 13.30 US PPI, initial jobless claims
- 23.30 NZ business PMI
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