Sterling is without a doubt the biggest loser today. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is in chaos. In less than 24 hours after May seemed to have secured Cabinet support for her Brexit deal, four ministers resigned. The biggest impact came from resignation of Brexit Minister Dominic Raab, who complained that “no democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement.” It’s also reported Senior Eurosceptic lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg is to submit a letter of no confidence later today. It’s just the beginning for May, and the Pound. Btw, much weaker than expected UK retail sales data also weigh on Sterling too.
For now, Dollar is following as the second weakest together Euro. Meanwhile, Australian Dollar is the strongest one today as boosted by strong employment data, and hope of progress is US-China trade negotiation. New Zealand Dollar is trading as the second strongest. Yen is the third strongest. Focus will turn to a batch of data from the US, including retail sales, Empire State manufacturing, Philly Fed survey, import price, business inventories and jobless claims.
In other markets, major European indices are mixed at the time of writing:
- FTSE is up 0.06%
- DAX is down -0.05%
- CAC is down -0.39%
- German 10 year yield drops -0.0244 to 0.379
- Italian 10 year yield drops -0.023 to 3.481
Earlier in Asia
- Nikkei closed down -0.20% at 21803.62.
- Singapore Strait Times gained 0.37% to 3054.53
- Both Hong Kong and Chinese stocks gained on US-China trade talk progress
- Hong Kong HSI rose 1.75% to 26103.34
- China Shanghai SSE rose 1.36% to 2668.17