The Pound Sterling gained ground against its key rivals during the London trade on Tuesday. Analysts say that the bounce is likely to be short-lived, however, given that the Prime Minister still faces an uphill battle as the bill makes its journey through the UK Parliament. Analysts say that even members of his own party are not in favor of the bill, as it stands, and that there is no easy fix for these trade negotiations. The Pound also got some support from unexpectedly upbeat jobs data. The ONS reported that the claimant count change for August came in at 73.7K, far fewer than the 100K that analysts had predicted while the previous reading was revised downward. The ILO Unemployment Rate came at in 4.1%, in line with expectations. Average earnings for the three-month period through July was better than expected at -1% (with bonus) and 0.2% (without bonus), against a forecast of -1.3% and -0.2%, respectively.
As of 11:21 am in London, the GBP/USD was trading higher at $1.2901, a gain of 0.4266% and moving off the session peak of $1.29036 while the low was recorded at $1.28141. The EUR/GBP was down at 0.2919 Pence, a loss of 0.1787%; the pair has ranged from a low of 0.92090 Pence to a high of 0.92599 Pence in today's session.
ZEW Surveys Show Improvement
In the Eurozone, the outcome of two key surveys was released earlier. Germany's ZEW survey of economic sentiment and the current situation for September showed some improvement with readings of 77.4 and -66.2, respectively, better than the expected 69.8 and -72. The Eurozone economic sentiment survey was similarly improved with a reading of 73.9 against a forecast of 62.8. The EUR/USD was trading higher at $1.1891, a gain of 0.2115%; today, the pair has ranged from $1.18585 to $1.19004.