Business

Year-end rate hike once again proves to be launchpad for gold price

As previewed moments ago, the BOE decision was rather unexciting, and after its November rate hike - the first in a decade - which many speculated could be a "one and done", the Bank of England unanimously kept rates unchanged at 0.50% as expected. The lack of dissenters meant this was the first time the nine policy makers have been in agreement since February. The committee also left the BOE's QE unchanged.

After weeks of mounting speculation - and a rumored competing bids by rivals Comcast Corp. and Verizon that never materialized - Disney and 21st Century Fox announced early Thursday that the former would acquire most of the latter's entertainment assets in a deal worth $52.4 billion, according to the official press release.

Here's what Disney is buying, according to the release:

As DB's Jim Reid writes, the BoE meeting due in minutes, should be a non event as recent inflation prints and macro data were broadly in line with consensus. Notably, any discussion on what the Brexit breakthrough on Friday might mean for policy could be the most interesting feature.

Here is some more courtesy of Rajan Dhall and fxdailyterminal.com.

BoE Preview 14/12/17

One day after the Fed hiked rates by 25 bps as part of Janet Yellen's final news conference, it is central bank bonanza day, with rate decisions coming from the rest of the world's most important central banks, including the ECB, BOE, SNB, Norges Bank, HKMA, Turkey and others.