Sterling falls back down as the markets anticipate US Federal Reserve meeting minutes

Sterling saw many of the previous day’s gains reversed on Wednesday, as markets geared up for the release on Wednesday evening of minutes from the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve.

Little UK economic data was released on Wednesday that would influence trading patterns, but with sterling having risen to a two-week high against the US dollar as worries heightened that the global disinflationary environment could lead to the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates back to 0.05% this year. These worries proved to be short-lived however, and sterling fell against the US dollar, and hit a one-week low versus the euro during the afternoon.

Today brings the release of preliminary economic growth data from the UK for the final quarter of 2015. With this being the first release it could have a significant impact on sterling should it show a figure different to that expected. The consensus forecast is 0.5% for the final quarter and 1.9% for the year.