The British Pound falls in early Asian Trade

Forex, or currency traders, are focused more on geopolitical issues than on actual economic data. This morning, in early Asian trade, the British Pound (GBP/USD) fell after news reports that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May is will be interviewed by the BBC. This television interview comes ahead of a general election scheduled to take place on June 8. There is also a meeting of European Union finance ministers to taking place. Taken together, this amounts to fertile ground for Brexit news flow volatility. Especially after several weeks of tense rhetoric from both sides of the English Channel.

As mentioned, in a previous report, The Japanese yen weakened against the US dollar, as the USD/JPY Forex market moved higher. This morning, Japanese official trade data, was rather encouraging, even though it was a broad miss. Asian stock markets were broadly higher as well, after a solid say on Wall Street. This put pressure on a low yielding Japanese yen. Looking at the Kiwi dollar, the New Zealand dollar was stronger as local bond yields also moved higher. This could be hinting at a supportive shift in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand outlook as a potential catalyst. However, an apparent trigger was not readily seen.

Fed Speak to influence the Dollar and British Pound

On the economic calendar today, influencing dollar and British Pound traders is a lot of comments from the US Federal Reserve (Fed). Governor Lael Brainard as well as Philadelphia and Minneapolis branch presidents Patrick Harker and Neel Kashkari are all on the schedule for Monday. Investors are likely to hope for an upbeat tone of rhetoric to subdue falling sentiment due to US political drama. Investors want to hear that the Fed intends to move ahead with a program of interest rate hikes. This may offer a boost to the US Dollar.