GBP/USD: High Volatility Continues, MPC Minutes Next Week London, November 16. Cable kicked off today"s European session in a volatile state and is trading in a similar vein ahead of the week-end 16:00GMT London fix. Having tested 2.0500 offers on the back of disappointing US industrial production data, GBP/USD retreated by three-quarters-of-a-cent to the middle of today"s intra-day range. 2.0352 defines the base of that range.
Next week"s key UK event risk is Wednesday"s publication of minutes from the November 7/8 BoE MPC meeting. BoE Deputy Governor Lomax is the most likely candidate to have joined Blanchflower in voting for a 25bp cut. Lomax voted against 3 of the 5 rate hikes delivered between August 2006 and July this year.
The risk of a 25bp UK base rate cut to 5.5% as early as next month has risen on the back of yesterday"s disappointing UK retail sales data, which followed Wednesday"s dovish BoE inflation report. If there is a UK rate cut on December 6, it is unlikely to be a one-off "insurance" move as per August 2005 (when the base rate was cut by 25bp to 4.5%).
Next week"s key UK event risk is Wednesday"s publication of minutes from the November 7/8 BoE MPC meeting. BoE Deputy Governor Lomax is the most likely candidate to have joined Blanchflower in voting for a 25bp cut. Lomax voted against 3 of the 5 rate hikes delivered between August 2006 and July this year.
The risk of a 25bp UK base rate cut to 5.5% as early as next month has risen on the back of yesterday"s disappointing UK retail sales data, which followed Wednesday"s dovish BoE inflation report. If there is a UK rate cut on December 6, it is unlikely to be a one-off "insurance" move as per August 2005 (when the base rate was cut by 25bp to 4.5%).