Thursday saw little sterling movement heading into bank holiday Friday in the UK.
Early on Thursday, the Bank of England had held interest rates at the all-time-low of 0.1% and voted not to extend its bond buying programme immediately, though leaving the door open.
Governor Andrew Bailey stated that the central bank will further consider what it needs to do with its bond-buying programme in June when it will have more clarity.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night set out a nuanced plan to get the UK back to work. However, the speech appeared to confuse rather than clarify and the pound has showed little reaction. The government is due to publish 50 pages of detailed guidance this afternoon.
There are no economic figures due for release today and the rest of this weeks looks quiet. The only data of note is on Wednesday, when preliminary first-quarter GDP is due.
GBPUSD opened at 1.2363 and closed at 1.2359
GBPEUR opened at 1.1449 and declined marginally, closing at 1.1426
In the US, data on Friday showed the country shed 20.5 million jobs in April, the largest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression. However, this was not unexpected and was shrugged off by traders, with Wall Street indexes actually rallying.
The greenback remains supported in early trading today by rising US Treasury yields.
There is little to report from the eurozone, as France today looks to reopen shops. EUR-GBP in particular has been trading in an uncharacteristically tight range for some time now.
The economic calendar looks light for the zone this week, with Friday’s first-quarter German GDP data being the only possible highlight.
EURUSD opened at 1.0791 and closed at 1.0815
In other news, Japan said today that it could end its state of emergency in many regions this week and New Zealand stated that it could further ease restrictions on Thursday.
