Market insights

Good morning,

Headlines are understandably dominated by the Ukraine situation. Western leaders are taking immediate action to introduce sanctions against Europe aimed at their economy and their ultra rich. Most formidable so far has been the German response to put the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline licence on hold. The pipeline has cost €10bn so far and is in place but not operational. It's aim is to run alongside the original Nord Stream pipeline to provide a quarter of Europe's natural gas requirement. This was an immediate and effective blow to Russia and Gazprom, the Russian state owned gas company.

Boris Johnson and Joe Biden have also rattled their sabres although the promised, strong sanctions have yet to be enforced.

This story alongside more dovish comments from the Bank of England's David Ramsden caused the Pound to tumble versus the Euro yesterday. This was exacerbated by a failure at previous technical resistance. However there was a nice bounce back recovery mid afternoon.

This shows the inherent volatility in the market right now around the Ukraine crisis. We saw a 0.8% intra day variance in the GBP/EUR rate which equates to £800 for every £100k exchanged demonstrating the potential risk at the moment.

It was a similar story for the GBP/USD rate although the intra day variance was smaller.

GBP is currently falling against the Australian Dollar but this looks to be profit taking against a rate that was poking against recent highs.

This morning sees the Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, giving a speech on the back of the MPC policy report hearings followed by the ECB's Luis De Guindos giving a speech later in the morning so expect GBP/EUR volatility again today.

As ever we look forward to keeping you in the loop and look out for our next update.

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Today’s Economic Calendar

UK: 09:30 MPC Policy Report Hearing

UK: 09:30 BoE's Governor Speech

EUR: 11:30 ECB's Luis De Guindos Speech

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