Mixed Brexit comments from UK officials triggered choppy trading as Prime Minister May continued to meet EU officials.

There was a mixed batch of US economic data with a 2-year low reading for the Philly Fed manufacturing index offset by firm services-sector data.

The dollar overall was little changed with markets waiting for trade developments.

Stronger Euro-zone services data helped limit potential EUR/USD selling pressure with Sterling monitoring political headlines.

Oil prices corrected slightly lower from 3-month highs while precious metals declined sharply on the day as gold retreated further from 10-month highs.

The Canadian dollar weakened after cautious comments from Bank of Canada Governor Poloz with wider commodity currencies under pressure.

Wall Street equities were subjected to a correction with little overall change in global bourses.

The UK government borrowing data recorded a surplus of £14.9bn for January, the strongest January surplus on record. For the first nine months of fiscal 2018/19, the borrowing requirement declined to a 17-year low of £21.2bn from £39.7bn the previous year. Tax revenue was firm and offered some reassurance over underlying growth trends.

Mixed Brexit comments from UK officials triggered choppy trading as Prime Minister May continued to meet EU officials. Chancellor Hammond was optimistic that a deal could be secured next week, but a government source suggested that this was unlikely as background talks continued and tensions increased.

Rhetoric was not convincing enough to trigger further buying and Sterling corrected slightly lower in tandem with energy prices. GBP/EUR settled around 1.1500 with GBP/USD around 1.3030. Narrow ranges prevailed on Friday with scope for pre-weekend position adjustment ahead of key votes next week while further moves by MPs to block any ‘no-deal’ Brexit curbed potential Sterling selling.

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