It's not that the moves were huge, just nonsensical and whippy
That said, I don't have the greatest memory but it was a tough one.
Let's have a look at the week that was in cable. As the weekly wind-down begins, the pound is the best G10 performer of the week, gaining 1.9% against the US dollar. But it wasn't easy.
For an analyst, the toughest thing to say is "I don't know" but there was a lot of head-scratching this week. Sometimes that's just the way it is.
Looking back, the story is that people wanted to buy pounds, (probably EUR/GBP sellers) and there is also a clear, underlying current of US dollar selling. The later factor you can't even blame on bonds late in the week. It's just that the dollar trade is crowded and needs to thin out.
Here are a few posts where we tried to make sense of the cable moves this week:
- Nasty, 100-pip whipsaw in cable
- Cable breaks 1.5500 and runs stops to 1.5518
- Cable giveth, cable taketh as Carney fails to hit hawkish notes
- Pound takes a quick spill to 1.5258 from 1.5320
It's also interesting to note that it was Mansion House week. It was at the same speech a year ago that Carney warned of earlier rate hikes in a move that sent cable to 1.7210. That marked the top and it was a turning point for the year.
