Main market movers of Thursday

GBP: the room for surprises

It’s an election day in the UK. Traders will watch exit polls. The results will start arriving after 00:30 MT rime on Friday. The results of the vote will become clear by 4:00-5:00 MT time.

The latest opinion polls showed that the Conservative Party has a small majority. This means that the risk of a hung parliament is substantial and the fate of the GBP is hanging in the balance.

In the meantime, Boris Johnson, Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservatives, was in no mood to talk: he hid in an industrial fridge to avoid journalists’ questions.

EUR: mildly negative risks ahead of the ECB

The first meeting of Christine Lagarde as the President of the European Central Bank. Analysts at UBS expect that she will deal with the divided Government Council and won’t initiate any new policy action. Still, the Lagarde may try to make the news. She may comment on the policy tools available to the central bank. In addition, the ECB may lower growth and inflation forecasts for the euro area.

USD: it’s not so bad

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve kept its interest rate unchanged at a 1.5%-2% range during its meeting. What is more important is that the Fed’s dot plot indicated the federal funds rate at 1.6% in 2020, without any changes. You can read more about the outcome of the meeting here.

Trump’s meeting is ahead

Today, US President Donald Trump plans to meet the top trade advisers to discuss tariffs on China. The meeting will be crucial ahead of the tariffs deadline on December 15. According to an anonymous source, the US administration will raise tariffs on Sunday, but the final word will still belong to Trump. The fresh tariffs will increase uncertainties in the process of the US-China trade deal and be hurtful for the risk-weighted assets, such as the AUD, the NZD, and stocks.

What else happens in the market?

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