Throughout 2022 UK banks, like NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC enjoyed rallies as the Bank of England was in the early stages of its interest rate hiking cycle.
In April, the firm issued its first quarter statement, and it revealed that net income increased by 12% to £4.1 billion.
Sterling remains the talk of the town as the Bank of England purchased long-dated gilts as a way of keeping yields under control.
The British pound has witnessed phenomenal volatility today as it plunged in overnight trading, then it staged a miraculous recover during the day, but it turned lower yet again.
We heard from a range of central banks last week and the update sparked big moves in the markets, and the bulk of the volatility was in currencies.
Traders are in risk off mode as central banks are in focus this week. The Swedish central bank lifted rates by 100% rates today, and the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are expected to deliver large rate hikes tomorrow and on Thursday, respectively.
The markets saw an increase in volatility towards the end of last week as bond yields ticked up, and that indicated the markets are factoring in more large rate hikes from central banks.
Last week, the ECB hiked interest rates by 75-bassis points, meeting estimates. Christine Lagarde, the head of the ECB made it clear that more interest rate hikes are in the pipeline as CPI in the eurozone is at a record high.
There was a spike in volatility last week when the US CPI report ticked down to 8.5% from 9.1%, missing the forecast of 8.7%.
It has been an interesting week and despite a lot of negative news, equity markets enjoyed a positive run.
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