Calm before the storm: The pound is back below $1.24 on Hillary Clinton hopes, as the FTSE 100 remains flat
After an encouraging beginning to the week, the pound fell below the $1.24 mark this morning as the dollar strengthened on hopes of a Hillary Clinton win in today's US Presidential election.
Having peaked at $1.2439 in early trading, the pound edged into the red in the early afternoon, dropping as low as $1.2388, 0.1 per cent lower.
Meanwhile, the dollar's earlier losing streak against the euro, in which it dipped as low as €0.9038, eased slightly. In late early afternoon it was flat, at €0.9057.
After its biggest one-day rally since the beginning of September, the FTSE 100 was also flat, at 6,807 points. It was dragged up by Primark owner Associated British Foods, which rose 4.9 per cent to 2,612p after it reported a rise in full-year revenues.
At the other end of the scale was Marks & Spencer, whose 88 per cent fall in first-half profits caused shares to drop 2.3 per cent to 340.8p.
The news came as Hillary Clinton took a lead in most polls ahead of the US Presidential Election.
"Clinton seems to have momentum on her side," said Connor Campbell, financials analyst at Spreadex.
"She is the clear market-favourite, has a 71.6 per cent chance of victory according to star-statistician Nate Silver, and is at a Democrat to Win binary spread of 76.9-83.4 against her orangutan opponent’s 16.6-23.1.
"Of course, this was basically the situation for the Remain camp pre-referendum, and with that result, Leicester winning the Premier League and the Cubs taking the World Series 2016 has already proven its willingness to still a middle-finger up at sense and logic throughout the year."
Hold tight…