Market updates on August 19
There were no major moves during the Asian trading session, however we have some events today, which may affect the sentiment in the market.
British services surge speeds down to 7-month minimum
In Britain’s dominant services sector, business activity speeded down to a seven-month minimum in October, and companies’ expectations for the coming year are the worst since the 2016 Brexit vote. That’s what a key poll disclosed on Monday.
In October, the IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index hit 52.2 in contrast with September’s reading of 53.9, which is its lowest value since March’ unusually icy weather as well as a bigger economic dive than market experts had foreseen in a Reuters survey.
Businesses' hopes for stronger activity over the next 12 months turned out to be the most downbeat since July 2016, exactly when they briefly reached a post-financial downtime minimum after the vote to break up with the European bloc.
The downbeat service sector numbers bring evidence that Brexit fears are putting more pressure on the British economy, as some experts pointed out.
Theresa May, UK Prime Minister has yet to agree a withdrawal pact with the European bloc in order to ensure services, products as well as employees will keep crossing borders after the United Kingdom finally leaves the EU on March 29 2019.
UK companies also posted headwinds from a decelerating global economy, financial market turbulence as well as trade tensions.
The previous week the Bank of England predicted that the UK’s rate of economic surge would halve to about 0.3% in the final three months of this year from an estimated 0.6% in the third quarter of 2018.
However, the dismal services data showed up after the worst manufacturing PMI since the Brexit vote.
As a matter of fact, the two PMIs along with firm construction data, appear to be the weakest since March, pointing to quarterly surge of up to 0.2% if the situation doesn’t get better, as experts explained.
Similar
Market updates on August 15
The risk sentiment remains under pressure after the comments by China about the countermeasures against the US tariffs. Thus, the AUD/USD and the USD/JPY pairs will be under our attention.
Attention: risk sentiment is off
During the European trading session, both the US and the UK yield curves inverted.
Latest news
Bitcoin dives 14%, slumping below $5,000
On Tuesday, crypto assets dived, with Bitcoin decreasing below the psychologically crucial $5,000 mark for the first time this year…
British inflation tacks on for the first time this year
In July, Britain's inflation rate rallied for the first time in 2018, thus leaving many UK households feeling quite squeezed by prices, soaring at nearly the same tempo as their wages…
Market updates on June 18
Welcome to Tuesday, people! Here’s your markets update ahead of the European trading session.
Deposit with your local payment systems
