27 June 2019
After a series of mixed releases and mostly a range-bound trading yesterday, EURUSD soared today in early European trading following a string of positive macroeconomic news from the common bloc.The Euro seems to have been boosted by French CPI inflation data. Consumer price growth in the EU’s third-largest economy ticked up from 0.9% to 1.2% in June, posting a positive monthly growth of 0.2%. Albeit the CPI Index for the Euro Area held steady at 1.2% as expected, a core inflation release added to the string of positive news, jumping from 0.8% in May to 1.1% in June, beating expectations.
Although we are halfway through the summit, the markets are bracing for the key meetings scheduled for Saturday. Even though there are as much as eight key themes on the G20’s agenda this year, the main focus is global trade. Most closely watched will be Donald Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping scheduled for tomorrow at 11:30 am local time (02:30 GMT). The market mood so far has been rather cautious. The crucial sentiment barometer in this context - Asian stocks - sold-off, but the extent of the decline has been rather limited.
Johnson prepares for tax cuts in a no-deal Brexit budget
Osaka G20 summit in focus
Although we are halfway through the summit, the markets are bracing for the key meetings scheduled for Saturday. Even though there are as much as eight key themes on the G20’s agenda this year, the main focus is global trade. Most closely watched will be Donald Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping scheduled for tomorrow at 11:30 am local time (02:30 GMT). The market mood so far has been rather cautious. The crucial sentiment barometer in this context - Asian stocks - sold-off, but the extent of the decline has been rather limited.
Johnson prepares for tax cuts in a no-deal Brexit budget
As reported by The Times, Boris Johnson—the favourite to replace Theresa May at the end of July—is working towards easing the burden a no-deal Brexit would cast on the British economy if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal. He is said to be preparing a set of aggressive tax cuts which could (albeit likely only partially) offset the no-deal Brexit’s disruptive effect to business and investment sentiment. In addition to the tax cuts, Johnson is planning to stop new regulations. Considering the looming Brexit deadline, according to the Times, the budget is likely to be released to September, earlier than usual.
As was the case with the EURUSD, GBPUSD trading was mostly range-bound yesterday. Sterling started Friday with the sell-off against the Euro, following the strengthening of the common currency.
Today’s final revision of the UK’s GDP data for the first quarter confirmed that Britain’s expansion stood at 0.5% versus the previous quarter. The report was mostly in line with an earlier estimate, showing only a slight downward revision to the growth in total business investment.
