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The Sterling fell sharply against the US Dollar, after the report by Markit on the UK services industry. The GBP/USD exchange rate decreased 24 base points or 0.17% to the 1.4123 mark and continued to decline.
Britain's economy revealed notably slower growth in January with the recent survey casting doubts on stronger investors' expectations that the Bank of England was about to raise rates in the following months. IHS Markit released its survey showing that the UK economic growth is likely to slow to 0.3% in the Q1, after a 0.5% gain in the last quarter of 2017. The weakening was mostly triggered by the country's dominants services industry, where activity growth decreased to the lowest level in 16 months of 53.0 in January.
| Historical Data Table: UK Services PMI | Economic Calendar for 06.02.2018 | ||||||||
| Date | 04.10.2017 | 03.11.2017 | 05.12.2017 | 04.01.2018 | 05.02.2018 | 1:30 PM | Canadian Trade Balance | ||
| Actual | 53.6 | 55.6 | 53.8 | 54.2 | 53 | 3:00 PM | Ivey PMI | ||
| Forecast | 53.2 | 53.3 | 55.2 | 54.1 | 54.1 | 9:45 PM | NZ Unemplyment Rate | ||
| Initial Reaction on Main Pairs | SWFX Sentiment Indexes | ||||||||
| Open Price | Close Price | % Change | Longs | Shorts | |||||
| GBP/USD | 1.4147 | 1.4123 | -0.17% | GBP/USD | 58.15% | 41.85% | |||
| EUR/GBP | 0.88161 | 0.88321 | 0.18% | EUR/GBP | 37.48% | 62.52% | |||
| GBP/CAD | 1.75433 | 1.75145 | -0.16% | GBP/CAD | 38.61% | 61.39% | |||
| GBP/JPY | 155.365 | 155.125 | -0.15% | GBP/JPY | 28.94% | 71.06% | |||