S&P Global data published on October 23 at 11:35 Moscow time. PMI - a survey of purchasing managers: above 50 means growth in business activity, below 50 means contraction.
▫ Composite PMI: 53.1 versus 52.0 a month earlier and a forecast of 51.8
▫ Services: 53.1 versus 52.1
▫ Manufacturing: 52.8 versus 51.9
This is the fastest growth in Britain's private sector since February. Chris Williamson, chief economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, also noted a second signal: companies have started hiring again - for the first time since hiring was weighed down by the autumn 2024 budget.
The reaction in the pair against the dollar was muted: GBP/USD around 1.3380, down about 0.1% for the day. The pound performed more strongly against the euro - there the rate hit its lowest since May 2025, that is, in 17 months, after European PMIs came in weaker than British ones.
Next for the pound there are two reference points: the final October indices and the upcoming Bank of England meeting - strong activity data and the return of hiring work against rapid rate easing. For now, strong UK statistics are being reflected not in the dollar but in cross-rates.
The pound moves slowly - and that is the main problem
Such releases rarely produce a hundred-pip candle. Here all the work is in the cross-rate, which crawls for months, and earnings depend not on entry precision but on how many lots you can hold through a half-percent move. On a personal deposit of a couple thousand, a 17-month low in euro against the pound turns into an amount that wasn't worth getting up for. prop trading works differently: the trading notional is provided by the company, you pass its evaluation stage and work within its risk limits. It makes sense to understand this before the next data cycle, not at the moment of publication.