Bank of England hike to 4.0% is the week's defining international print

The Bank of England raised Bank Rate to 4.0 percent on 5 November in an 8-1 vote, and the accompanying UK consumer price reading of 3.5 percent in September is the number that explains it. That is the single print defining this week for the currency and bond investor: a Group of Seven central bank hiking in an 8-1 vote into an inflation rate that is accelerating, not retreating. Inflation at 3.5 percent is up from 3.1 percent in August and still short of the 3.8 percent it ran a year earlier, and the Monetary Policy Committee's majority read that gap as enough of a wage-driven risk to move. Sterling traded around 1.2250 against the dollar in the immediate reaction window.

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