This morning at 2 am Eastern Time, the Office for National Statistics reported the latest monthly round of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Core CPI increases within the United Kingdom’s economy. Annual CPI, which had been forecasted to hit 10.7%, instead jumped by an astonishing 11.1%, making for another multidecade high; annual Core CPI also surpassed expectations, reaching 6.5% instead of the anticipated 6.4%. Because higher-than-expected inflation numbers tend to prompt central banks to raise interest rates to cool their respective economy in response, the Pound rose on the news accordingly, with traders welcoming the bullish indicator. However, it seems quite plausible that the UK CPI data mislead markets today, because these high figures are not due to traditional economic overheating.
A more fitting target for the blame is the slew of supply side issues stemming from the wartime energy crisis and clunky access to import commodities, driving up food and gas prices. This is why Core CPI in the UK has thus far only increased by a little over half that of CPI, and why the UK’s GDP is contracting, not expanding. These structural issues cannot be resolved merely by a central bank restricting demand vis-à-vis interest rate hikes; rather, either some combination of domestic production and trade must be reconfigured, or many of these tragic conditions must simply be endured, even in the form of stagflation. Whatever comes to pass, this particular kind of high inflation is ominous, and may perhaps be more appropriately filed as bearish for GBP upon a closer look.
Two Potential Pairs to Sell
For those who are looking for opportunities to short the Pound, the following two pairs are viewed favorably for GBP bears by the EdgeFinder, A1 Trading’s handy market scanner. They are listed below with their respective ratings, signals/biases, and corresponding charts. GBP/NZD is perhaps especially worth watching, as the Kiwi Dollar displays impressive fundamentals.
1) GBP/NZD (Earns a Score of -8, or a ‘Strong Sell’ Signal)
2) GBP/CHF (Earns a Score of -3, or a ‘Sell’ Signal)
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