Pound Slides On Middle East Tensions, Declining Fed Rate Cut Bets

(RTTNews) - The British pound weakened against other major currencies in the European session on Monday, amid growing worries about Israel's potential retaliation against Iran for a missile attack and robust U.S. jobs data signaled economic resilience but prompted trades to pare bets on aggressive Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.

Today marks a year after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel, which led to its retaliation in Gaza.

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel's third largest city Haifa early today. Israeli military said that air raid sirens were activated in central Israel after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.

After Friday's blowout payrolls report, traders now price in only a quarter-point cut in interest rates at the Federal Reserve's next policy announcement on Nov. 7, with a small chance that the policy rate stays unchanged.

European stocks were subdued due to pressure from higher bond yields following robust U.S. jobs data released last week.

In addition to the cautious outlook in the market, the pound sterling has been negatively impacted by growing anticipation that the Bank of England (BoE) would lower interest rates once more in November.

In economic news, data from the Lloyds Bank subsidiary Halifax showed that U.K. house prices rose at the fastest annual rate in almost two years in September due to base effects. The house price index rose 4.7 percent year-on-year in September, faster than the 4.3 percent rise in August. Further, this was the steepest increase since November 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, house prices rose at a stable rate of 0.3 percent in September. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent increase. Prices rose for the third successive month.

The British sterling held steady against its major rivals in the Asian session today.

In the European trading today, the pound fell to nearly a 4-week low of 1.3066 against the U.S. dollar, from an early high of 1.3135. The pound may test support near the 1.29 region.

Against the euro, the yen and the Swiss franc, the pound edged down to 0.8389, 193.73 and 1.1205 from early highs of 0.8356, 195.26 and 1.1271, respectively. If the pound extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.85 against the euro, 186.00 against the yen and 1.10 against the franc.

Looking ahead, U.S. consumer credit change for August is due to be released at 3:00 pm ET in the New York session.