Fears Of 'Brexit' Decrease On The Market

 | May 02, 2016 07:02AM ET

Forex News and Events

Fears of Brexit decrease on the market

The discussion over the UK referendum continues to dominate conversation despite reduced “Brexit” fears on the financial markets. Following US President Obama’s clear support for the UK to remain part of the EU, the probability of an exit has decreased meaningfully as reflected in certain polls. In general, online markets and bookmakers have seen the likelihood of an exit fall from 34% to 28%, while traditional polls, reporting a very close race, have calculated only a marginal fall as a result of these comments. It this clear that discrepancies in polls and questionable credibility (especially as a result of the Scottish referendum polling fiasco) are generating uncertainty. From a market standpoint, worries over an exit seem to have been reduced.

The sterling has paused around a 3-month high at 1.4650, against USD and EUR bullish momentum, GBP 1 month implied volatility has fallen significantly, while GBP/USD 25d risk reversals have recovered from lows. Yet, GBP IMM speculative positions remain short. With the UK conducting mayoral and regional elections this week the debate over Brexit will undoubtedly dominate. UK economic data scheduled this week includes manufacturing and services PMI and CBI Industrial trends, which are all expected to highlight an economy that is further decelerating. We anticipate the “remain” vote will seize on the soft data heading towards the EU referendum as evidence of the negative consequence of a break-up. We suspect that the recent GBP recovery will be short-lived and will erode the closer we get to June 23rd. GBP/USD has been unable to break the 1.4664 resistance (04/02/2016 high) suggesting a pullback to 1.4475 (27/02/2016) support

The SNB intervenes slightly to weaken the CHF

Data released this morning, shows that Swiss Total Sight Deposits continue to grow higher, rising from CHF 490.9 billion for the week ending 22nd April to CHF 491.2 billion last week. We believe that there are growing evidence that the SNB is intervening in an attempt to further weaken the domestic currency. Since the end of January 2015, total deposits have increased drastically - by more than CHF 50 billion.

The SNB is closely scrutinising any comment or action from the ECB that could result in further appreciation of the CHF. For the moment, the ECB's monetary policy has not proven its ability to deliver the necessary results. Two weeks ago, Draghi announced that European “inflation should go more negative before bouncing back”. The Helvetic currency has been appreciating since also due to its safe haven status and global uncertainties, namely lingering low commodity prices and high geopolitical risks such as Brexit. Fears of a dismantled European Union is pushing the EUR/CHF lower and driving the SNB to intervene, even though very slightly, on the FX markets.

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Over the past months, the EUR/CHF has grown slightly and is currently trading slightly below 1.1000. It seems that there is a strong resistance area at this level and the pair keeps on bouncing back. We remain bearish on the pair but are also vigilant of any surprise action from the SNB.