The Pound reached an 11 week high against the US Dollar on Monday after news of the latest vaccine showed it had excellent levels of efficacy. This caused the currency to soar as hopes increased around the possibility of a vaccine being rolled out soon. Even the latest UK PMIs which had contracted during November could not stop the gains but manufacturing was better than expected when compared to October. Once again, Brexit optimism bolstered the currency and so, it rounded off the day at 1.1254 against the Euro and 1.3328 against the US Dollar according to the Foreign Exchange Market.
The Eurozone’s PMI weighed heavily on the Euro yesterday with manufacturing slowing during November and services also falling below expectations. The data showed that coronavirus is having an impact on the economy still although there is hope as infections seem to be slowing in Germany and France.
The US Dollar suffered at the hands of further vaccine news yesterday as risk increased. Despite this, some losses were regained later on in the day following a better-than-expected growth in manufacturing and service PMIs. However, news of Donald Trump starting the formal transition to Joe Biden could cause the US Dollar trend lower today.