FX round-up: Traders brush off Supreme Court decision

Sterling was little changed despite the Supreme Court´s ruling that an Act of Parliament was necessary before the government could trigger Article 50, setting in motion the UK´s departure from the European Union.

Nonetheless, analysts concurred with Brexit minister David Davis when he said the government´s timetable for trigerring Article 50, by the end of March, was unchanged.

Indeed, Westminster´s hand when it came to consulting with the devolved powers when negotiating a deal had been strengthened, Bank of America-Merill Lynch said in a research note.

Similarly, it was not at all clear to what extent, if any, the ruling would allow MPs to influence the final outcome of the negotiations, the investment bank said.

As of 1649 GMT, cable was edging higher by 0.17% to 1.2525, while euro/dollar was up by 0.1% to 1.0753 and dollar/yen was gaining 0.33% to 113.52.

Acting as a backdrop, the latest euro area and US purchasing managers indices revealed solid underlying trends in each economy at the start of 2017.

Markit´s Eurozone manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ index jumped to a 69-month high of 55.1 in January, up from 54.9 in the month before.

A similar gauge for the service sector ticked lower from a reading of 53.7 to 53.6 but continued to point to a robust pace of expansion, analysts at HSBC said.

Over in the States, the same survey compiler´s factory sector PMI picked up from 54.3 to 55.1 for January - its best reading since March 2015 - signalling a "marked upturn" in the health of the sector, driven by sharp increases in gauges of output and new orders.

The US dollar index was flat at 100.16.