Pound hits three-year high, as reopening hopes lift travel and oil firms – business live
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- BoE’s Bailey criticises EU pressure on City
- Travel stocks rallying again today
- Sterling has hit $1.42 today, first time since April 2018
- Also at one-year high vs euro
- Analysts: reopening plan lifts pound
- Fed chair warns US economic recovery ‘uneven and far from complete
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average has hit a new record high.
We're back to this then…
DOW HITS RECORD HIGH
Btw, I'd never normally quote the Dow, it's an awful index; but, this week, it's been a relatively useful gauge of the sector rotation being seen as re-opening optimism gathers pace
The S&P is a growth index, if tech is red, then the S&P likely will be too
Although the pound has dipped back from its three-year high of $1.42, analysts suspect it could push higher this year.
Capital Economics have raised their forecast for sterling’s value at the end of 2021, from $1.40 to $1.45.
First, it could conceivably have encouraged more portfolio flows into the UK stock market given its sectoral composition – the UK has a high weighting of energy and financials, which have benefited most from the vaccine-induced rotation. And second, the UK’s vaccine rollout has been especially successful, improving the relative prospects for its economy.



