FX round-up: Pound up slightly despite latest Brexit polls

Cable started the week with a small rise ahead of the release of a raft of so-called ‘first-tier’ data on the UK due out over the rest of the week.

Cable advanced 0.24% to reach 1.4399, with euro/gbp lower by 0.16% to 0.7861 at the end of trading.

That was despite the release of the latest ICM poll for The Guardian, on Monday, showing a slight deterioration in the ‘remain’ camp’s degree of support in an on-line poll (which usually shows a majority of voters supporting Brexit).

Also in typical fashion, a similar telephone poll from ICM showed strengthening support for the ‘remain’ camp.

Those contradictory results led Martin Boon, director of ICM, to write "If you want to ask me, which is unlikely, the answer you’d get is ‘I just don’t know’.”

Acting as a backdrop, as of 18:45 BST the US dollar index was off slightly, trading down by 0.06% to 94.548.

The greenback was on the backfoot despite more hawkish Fedpseak.

In an interview with The Washington Post, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Richmond, Jeffrey Lacker, warned the US central bank might be at risk ‘falling behind the curve’ and held out the possibility of another interest rate hike in June.

Nonetheless, he cautioned that he did not make up his mind ahead of any given meeting.

Also worth noting, on 13 May Goldman Sachs bumped up its near-term forecasts for euro/dollar.

Adding to the selling pressure on the US dollar, the latest Empire State manufacturing data and pending home sales index undershot expectations, although economists were dismissive of just how reflective the data were of the true underlying state of each of those sectors.

Commodity currencies also got a boost from higher prices for oil and bulk commodities on international markets.

By the closing bell front-month Brent crude futures were up by 2.1% at $48.84 per barrel on the ICE.

Further afield, the South African rand was 1.41% weaker versus the US dollar at 15.620 and near two-month lows on the back of local reports that South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan might be facing “imminent arrest”.