Pound is growth leader, dollar and ruble in danger and FED

1 Mei 2019

The best day for the pound over the past six weeks. Sum up, the result of its growth was the highest among the 30 other currencies on FOREX. Causes - a general correction in dollar pairs and possibility of Brexit progress. It is about the progress in the negotiations between Government and the leaders of the opposition Labor Party. As a result, by the middle of the next week, a compromise on Brexit may appear. In addition, a decision on the parameters of monetary policy in the UK will be announced on Thursday. But we will talk about it tomorrow.

Today, the Fed’s Open Market Operations Committee will announce its decision. With a 98% probability, the rate will remain unchanged. That is characteristic 2% put on a decrease in the rate. Obviously, the rate change is not worth waiting. But in general, if you look at the likelihood of lowering the rate until the end of the year, then the tendency is rather “dovish”: the probability that by the end of the year the rate will be decreased is 60-70%. What does this mean for the dollar? - Nothing good. Yesterday's sales - further proof of that. The weak inflation component in the latest report on US GDP indicates that the expectations of a rate hike in 2019 by the Fed are not that baseless.

Thus, yesterday the markets were discounted under a possible "pigeon" tone by the Fed. Note that as a reason for the Fed’s optimism is the latest figures for US GDP (they are much higher than forecasts). So the results are quite unpredictable in terms of the Central Bank’s comments. Our position as a whole is to sell the dollar. But, it will need to be adjusted in the process of results announcement.

Returning to the events of yesterday, we should note relatively good data on the Eurozone GDP (exceeded forecasts: 0.4%, with market expectations averaging 0.3%). But the GDP of Canada frankly disappointed: in February, the indicator fell by 0.1%. In addition, the situation with unemployment in the Eurozone was better than experts' expectations (7.7%, with a forecast of 7.8%). In this light, yesterday's growth of EURUSD above 1.12 can be considered as logical.

Democratic Leader Senator Chuck Schumer called on the United States to impose additional sanctions against Russia. And today, in the US Congress should pass a hearing on Russia, which could result in another tightening of sanctions.

As for our positions, today we are continuing to look for points for the dollar sales against the euro, pound, as well as the Australian and Canadian dollars. In addition, we will buy gold, as well as sell oil and the Russian ruble on the intraday basis.