The Bank of England has sharply raised its UK growth forecast to 2% from the 1.4% forecast in November. That sent the pound lower and FTSE higher.
Governor Mark Carney said “Growth has remained resilient since the referendum... The monetary policy committee expects growth to be stronger over the forecast period than in November,” but added that we are just at the beginning of a long Brexit journey which will have twists and turns along the way. The central bank also changed its inflation forecast to 2% this quarter, 2.7% in 2018 and 2.6% in 2019.
The pound had earlier hit a 7-week high against the dollar before falling back below $1.26. DailyFX Currency Strategist James Stanley will be looking at various GBP-pairs to see where these new themes might be most advantageously followed. You can see join the webinar here.
In Europe, Deutsche Bank is keeping Germany lower after reporting a second full-year net loss. Earnings were marred by mixture of litigation and restructuring costs. Shares dropped as much as 7% at one stage.
In the telecom sector, price pressures in the UK and India knocked Vodafone sales, and subsequently their shares which fell more than 2 percent at the start of trade. Vodafone says it expects to meet the lower end of its underlying earnings forecast of 3-6%.
Healthcare also in focus after AstraZeneca and Novo Nordrisk lowered 2017 forecasts.
--- Written by Sara Walker, DailyFX
