Continued Political Turmoil Sparks Volatile Currency Markets
Thursday 26th September 2019 – 09:07 (BST)
Continued political turmoil on both sides of the pond have left the currency markets volatile and unpredictable during the final week of September.
The pound saw big swings against all major currencies following the Supreme Courts ruling on Boris Johnsons unlawful prorogation request from the Queen and the subsequent re-opening of Parliament. Calls for the prime minister’s resignation were met with demands for an early general election.
Analysts are now unsure on what this means for the UK’s ability to negotiate some form of Brexit deal ahead of the October 31st deadline, with many now predicting an enforced extension followed by a general election held in the last week of November.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond at the United Nations, Donald Trump called Democratic plans to impeach him ‘a political war,’ and trashed critics who had suggested he had acted improperly during a call with the newly elected Ukrainian president – Volodymyr Zelensky. The dollar reacted positively when the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Bill Barr, declined to criminally investigate the call – effectively clearing the president.
Attention was soon averted to progressive talks between the US and China with the president claiming that China was making big purchases of agriculture, beef and pork. He also repeated an earlier comment that ‘there’s a good chance we’ll make a deal with China’ and said ‘we are getting closer and closer’.