Market News

The Pound Sterling was steady during London trading and remained close to a 4-month trough as FX traders prepare themselves for the Bank of England’s monetary policy decision due to be released shortly.

Emerging market currencies have been under fire in recent weeks, and with the impending U.S. sanctions against Iran

Concerns over new U.S. sanctions against Iran sent oil prices higher for the second day on Thursday, pushing them to new multi-year highs after gains over 3 percent during Wednesday’s U.S. trading session.

After plummeting over 2 percent during Tuesday’s New York trading session, oil prices were broadly higher on Wednesday morning.

The Pound Sterling edged lower ahead of this week’s policy meeting of the Bank of England.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he will announce his decision about the Iran nuclear deal at 6 p.m. GMT despite originally planning to decide by Saturday, May 12th.

This week will be a big week for political negotiators, and traders are taking notice. Of specific interest is the Iranian nuclear deal which is poised to crumble if a new nuclear deal cannot be reached.

Oil prices surpassed their three-year highs on Monday as supplies remained tight and traders waited for news regarding the possibility of fresh U.S. sanctions against Iran.

This week will see a lighter news agenda compared to last week, although there will be some major releases.

The US Dollar fell as a result of profit taking by investors as they await today’s release of the US Department of Labor private sector jobs report for April.

The Pound Sterling is now recovering some of Wednesday’s momentum after a kneejerk fall after the release earlier today of Markit’s PMI survey for the UK services sector.

Asian stocks indexes struggled on Thursday after a rough day on Wall Street on Wednesday which culminated in losses in all three major indexes.

The market was abuzz with news during Thursday’s Asian trading session after the Federal Reserve announced that it would be holding interest rates stable, and a U.S. delegation arrived in Beijing to broker trade talks that could potentially impact China’s trade policies.

Earlier, the Pound Sterling was trading near to the recently struck 3½ month trough but an unexpectedly upbeat PMI Construction report helped lift the Pound out of the doldrums.

The dollar held near a four-month high on Wednesday as investors waited for news from the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting which will be ending later today.