US Dollar:
The dollar stayed relatively side lined yesterday as market attention focused on the meeting over in Brussels. It lost some of the gains against the Euro we have seen it make over the past few days -it opened up in the UK around the 1.4100 area but continued to lose ground to finish our session at 1.4220. The main focus of attention
centred on a certain Dominique Strauss-Kahn who will remain in the US for a few more days ( at least ). Later today we have Building Permit figures coming out and these are seen as an excellent gauge of future con¬struction activity as a permit is among the first steps in constructing a new building.
DATA : 13.30 Building Permits
Pound:
The pound had a relatively quiet day yesterday and certainly throughout the UK session we saw little move¬ment. Cable started the day around 1.6200 and finished only slightly higher at 1.6230. It was the same story yesterday with GbpEur as we opened around the 1.1470 area and finished about 60 pips lower at 1.1410. To¬day attention turns to the latest round of Inflation figures. These are expected to show an increase to the cost of living as surging oil prices continue to reduce the amount of cash in our pockets. We are expecting to see an increase to 4.2% and therefore Mervyn will once again have to dust his quill down ( for the sixth successive quarter ) and offer his explanations to the Chancellor George Osborne. He will reiterate his message from last week that Inflation should peak around the 5% level before eventully starting to slowly decline to reach their target of 2% by 2013.
Data: 9.30 CPI 4.2%
Euro:
Despite a rather influential member of the IMF deciding to continue his vacation in the Big Apple European fi¬nance ministers got down to the business that they are paid to do and after burning the midnight oil they man¬aged to come up with a package to help Portugal. They decided on a package of around €78 billion with Europe alone proving around €56 billion of this figure. This bailout was felt justified as it was felt it was needed to safe¬guard financial stability in the euro area and the EU as a whole. Certainly short term this may give the Euro¬zone a boost along with talk that we may see a rate rise sooner rather than later.
DATA : European finance ministers continue their meeting German ZEW economic statement
General:
The Australian Dollar had a good day yesterday and managed to make gains against all of its 16 major counter¬parts as the Reserve Bank said it may need to raise borrowing costs at ‘ some point ‘ to slow inflation.
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| GBP/USD | 1.6210 |
| GBP/EUR | 1.1435 |
| EUR/USD | 1.4170 |
| GBP/JPY | 132.00 |
| GBP/AUD |
1.5305 |
| GBP/NZD | 2.0750 |
| GBP/ZAR | 11.3200 |
| GBP/CHF |
1.4360 |
| GBP/CAD | 1.5815 |
| GBP/SGD | 2.020 |
| GBP/THB |
49.05 |
red-down; blue-up (snap shot)
These rates are for indication purposes only.
For more information or to get the latest spot rates contact:
John Paul Georgiou
Senior Foreign Exchange Broker