Bank of England

Despite US markets being closed in observance of Washington's birthday, S&P futures spiked during overnight trading, reaching new all time highs before fading some of the gains. Both Asian and European markets traded modestly higher after paring early gains. The U.S. dollar traded in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events, while the pound rallied the most in more than two weeks ahead of a House of Lords Brexit debate, while South Africa’s rand fell on political turmoil. Oil advanced for a third day and spot gold rose for the fourth session in five.

Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com

On 5 February, the Financial Times of London (FT) featured a story revealing that the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) plans to begin publishing data on the amount of real physical gold actually stored in the London precious metals vaulting network. The article titled “London gold traders to open vaults in transparency push” can be read here (accessible via FT subscription or via free monthly FT read limit).

Authored by Jesse Felder via TheFelderReport.com,

“As I look back, it now seems that, with all the thought and work and good intentions, which we provided, we achieved absolutely nothing… nothing that I did, and very little that old Ben [Strong of the Federal Reserve] did, internationally produced any good effect – or indeed any effect at all except that we collected money from a lot of poor devils and gave it over to the four winds.”

 

-Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England 1920-1944

European shares and S&P futures fell amid mixed earnings from corporate heavyweights, while Asian stocks were fractionally higher. The dollar slump continued against all its major peers after the Federal Reserve gave dollar bulls little to be optimistic about.  The U.S. currency dropped toward the lowest close since November after the Fed reiterated its intention on Wednesday to lift rates only gradually.

Ahead of Theresa May's speech, which catalyzed the biggest jump in sterling since 2008, the signs were already there that the British currency is facing upward pressure when December U.K. inflation was reported to have accelerated to the fastest pace in more than two years, driven by the tumbling pound which drove a surge in import costs. Consumer-price growth increased to 1.6 percent, the highest since July 2014, from 1.2 percent in November, and above the 1.4% consensus estimte.