Cable rallied to a 7-week peak of 1.5263 yesterday after the latest Ashcroft poll gave the ruling Tory party a 6 point lead: Apr 28, 2015

Intra-Day Market Moving News:  Apr 28, 2015 00:55GMT


GBP/USD - ....... The British pound continued its recent winning streak on Monday and rallied strongly in NY session to 1.5263, however, beware of profit taking when U.K. preliminary Q1 GDP is released.
Britain's economy slowed in the first 3 months of this year, data is likely to show on Tuesday, potentially dealing a setback to PM David Cameron who has staked his re-election bid on the strength of the recovery.

Quarterly growth eased to 0.5%, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, down only a touch from 0.6% in the last 3 months of 2014 but its slowest pace in more than a year.

Several forecasters with leading banks predict a sharper slowdown, possibly to as little as 0.3%. The preliminary reading of GDP, due at 0830 GMT, is largely an estimate by official statisticians because more half of the data has yet to be gathered, and the figures are often revised.

In annual terms, Tuesday's data was expected to show the economy was 2.6% bigger than in the 1st quarter of last year, slowing from 3.0% in the 4th quarter.

The economy is not expected to lose much momentum in 2015 as a whole, unless the election results in a weak government that might limp on for a few months before another vote. Private sector surveys have shown companies remain upbeat about demand, especially as the euro zone show signs of growth.

The weak 1st-quarter growth rate is unlikely to change the thinking much at the BoE which has kept interest rates unchanged at 0.5% for more than 6 years. Minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting showed the Bank's interest rate-setters were optimistic about the prospects for the euro zone n there were no calls for a rate cut.

Cable rallied to a 7-week peak of 1.5263 on Mon after the latest Ashcroft poll gave the ruling Tory party a 6 point lead over Labour whereas the Yougov Mon poll showed the Conservative party was only ahead by one point.

Earlier, it was reported Conservatives took a one percentage point lead over the opposition Labour Party, according to a YouGov opinion poll for the Sun newspaper published yesterday.
The poll showed Conservatives on 35%, up 2 points from Sunday, versus Labour at 34%, unchanged fm y'day, polling company YouGov said.

The 2 main parties have been neck-and-neck in most opinion polls since the start of the year, with neither establishing a sustained lead exceeding the typical 3-point margin of error.
Opinion polls have consistently shown that neither of the 2 main parties is likely to win an overall majority in the 650-seat Parliament.