GBP price, news and analysis:
- Sterling and other assets seen as risky are benefiting from news that a Covid-19 vaccine under development by US biotech firm Moderna has produced protective antibodies.
- The UK has announced a new post-Brexit tariff regime, seen broadly as positive.
- Meanwhile, the latest UK jobs data show an unexpected fall in the unemployment rate in March but the numbers will worsen in the months ahead.
GBP/USD outlook improves
GBP/USD is looking firmer after news of promising early coronavirus vaccine results from the first US vaccine trial in humans. The Covid-19 vaccine under development by the biotech firm Moderna has reportedly produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers during a safety trial launched in March, and that has helped riskier assets generally at the expense of safe havens.
GBP/USD Price Chart, 30-Minute Timeframe (May 15 – 19, 2020)
Chart by IG (You can click on it for a larger image)
Meanwhile, the UK has announced a new post-Brexit tariff regime to replace the EU’s external tariff, maintaining a 10% tariff on cars but cutting levies on tens of billions of pounds of supply-chain imports. That has had little impact on GBP so far but is broadly positive for the currency.
UK unemployment rate falls
As for the latest economic data, figures show that the UK unemployment rate fell unexpectedly to 3.9% in March from 4.0% in February; an increase to 4.4% had been expected. However, the numbers include just one week in which a lockdown was in place in the UK and data for April will likely be much worse.
On Wednesday, UK inflation figures are due to be published and are expected to show falls in both the month/month and year/year CPI numbers for April.{{WEBINAR}}
If you’d like some FX trading strategies and tips, you can check out this article here.
We look at Sterling regularly in the DailyFX Trading Global Markets Decoded podcasts that you can find here on Apple or wherever you go for your podcasts
--- Written by Martin Essex, Analyst and Editor
Feel free to contact me via the comments section below
