Published at 08:44(GMT) 19 Nov

EURGBP

USD buying leaves more cable stops at risk all the way down to 1.6600. Obviously the retail sales numbers at 9:30gmt will be a focus, and here we look for a 'with market' rise of 0.5%m/m, 2.9%y/y. What does appear to be different this morning - and to a certain extent the last part of yesterday's trading - was that what had appeared to be M&A related buying during the previous several sessions appeared to have gone away - as did the central bank buying that had also been obvious. Perhaps on the first part of that we can reawaken that interest if there is any truth in the Daily telegraph story that the UK's Reckitt Benckiser is close to announcing a 'multi-billion pound cross-border transaction'. The telegraph suggests that the most obvious candidate is the US's Colgate-Palmolive, but notes that as the two companies are roughly the same size, any deal would have to be structured as a merger. C.F.