Cable remained under pressure yesterday as former Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings gave a highly anticipated testimony. Mr Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former top aide, claimed that Boris Johnson was “unfit for the job”. Cummings claimed that Johnson had ignored vital scientific advice and “wrongly” delayed lockdowns, resulting in “tens of thousands of people” dying, “who didn’t need to die”. The former aide also said that Matt Hancock should have been fired for lying - something denied by the health secretary. Ultimately, Mr Cummings’ message was that Downing Street had “fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this”.
While Cummings made clear his former colleagues’ shortcomings, he was unusually humble when he stated he “would like to say to all the families of those who died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes at that”.
Despite the damaging comments made by Cummings, Sterling stayed relatively resilient, making only minor losses against the Dollar. GBPUSD opened the day at 1.4156 and closed at 1.4124.
GBPEUR in contrast was able to close above where it opened. The pair started the day subtly at 1.1552 and closed 9 pips above at 1.1561.
EURUSD made a loss on Wednesday as the Greenback was able to find some vigour. The pair started the day at 1.2254 and closed and 1.2216.
On the data front, Germany will be releasing its all-important GfK Consumer Confidence for June, forecasted to come in at -5.2 with a previous of 8.8. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator is based on a survey of 2000 individuals age 14 and above. The questionnaire focuses on income expectations, buying propensity and savings. Then in the afternoon from the US, Durable Goods Orders MoM and GDP Growth will both be released at 13:30.