The Pound Strengthened After the Bank of England Comments

Yesterday aggressive purchases of GBP/USD were observed. The pound strengthened against the US dollar by more than 200 points. The currency has reached the round level of 1.3400. The Bank of England, as expected, left the key interest rate at the previous level of 0.25%. At the same time, the regulator said that due to a significant acceleration of inflation in the near future, the issue of raising the interest rate may be brought up. Demand for the pound remains at a fairly high level.

The US published quite optimistic statistics. In August, consumer prices rose by 0.4%, which is higher than the forecasted value of 0.3%. The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits decreased by 4.7% to 284,000. Nevertheless, the “majors” showed a variety of trends.

In the Asian trading session, there was a slight correction on the “black gold” market. At the moment, futures for the WTI crude oil are being traded near $49.6 per barrel.

Market Indicators

Major US stock indices closed in different directions: #SPY (-0.03%), #DIA (+0.25%), #QQQ (-0.59%).

At the moment, the 10-year US government bonds yield is at the level of 2.18-2.20%.

The dollar index (#DX) completed the trading session in the negative zone (-0.51%).