Sterling slipped on Tuesday after a suspected suicide attack killed at least 22 people and wounded 59 at a pop concert in the English city of Manchester.
Sterling eased 0.1 percent to $1.298, extending Monday’s 0.3 percent loss. The pound dropped 0.3 percent to 144.34 yen, after losing 0.2 percent on Monday.
The attack came up just two-and-a-half weeks before an election that Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to win easily, though polls showing that the contest was tightening put the sterling under pressure.
At least 22 people were murdered in a suicide bombing at a pop concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande along with children in the northern English city of Manchester. Fifty-nine (59) others were injured in the attack carried out by a suicide bomber, who died after detonating an improvised explosive device.
If the attack on the concert is confirmed as a terrorist attack, this would be the worst and deadliest attack in Britain by militants since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London’s transport system in July 2005.
“This has been the most horrific incident we have had to face in Greater Manchester and one that we all hoped we would never see.” said Hopkins. “We have been treating this as a terrorist incident and we believe, at this stage, the attack last night was conducted by one man. The priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network.”
Euro At Six-Month High
The euro hit a six-month high overnight after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “too weak” due to the ECB’s monetary policy, pointing out that this helped explain Germany’s relatively high trade surplus.
The common currency jumped 0.1 percent to $1.1249 after jumping as much as 0.5 percent and closing 0.3 percent higher on Monday.
Junichi Ishikawa, a senior FX strategist in Tokyo, said that Merkel’s comments boosted the euro and so the weakened dollar is not essentially a bad thing for Trump.
The chancellor’s comments delivered fresh momentum to the euro, which has been on a bullish footing since the French presidential elections earlier this month. Upbeat euro zone data and a widening spread between the 10-year German and U.S. government bond yields have also supported the currency.
Moreover, The safe-haven yen advanced against major peers like the dollar and euro but its gains were modest.
The dollar was barely down 0.09 percent at 111.14 yen after a dip to 110.860 but the euro rallied 0.03 percent to 125.12 yen.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of trade-weighted peers, was 0.1 percent lower at 96.80.
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