US Dollar:
Thursday’s dreadful US economic data pushed equity markets lower and investors into safe haven trades, to the benefit of the yen, and to an extent the dollar. The jobs situation continues to hang over the stock market like a dark cloud, essentially deflating the good news delivered earlier this week from a better than expected July report on industrial production. This market fear continued into Asian trade and the dollar is now higher against the pound and euro. A shocking number for the Philly fed came in at –7.7 from an expected figure of 7.1, a minus figure indicating worsening conditions and a positive figure indicating growth. Unemployment claims also disappointed as a figure of 500k was seen, above the 478k number expected. Yesterday's currency moves did not all go in the dollars favour though, as the greenback neared a 15 year low against a rampant yen.
No data, no speakers, nothing.
Pound:
Sterling had a strong day yesterday against the majors as it puffed its chest out and soared on better than ex-pected UK economic data. Voltrex clients took advantage of intraday emailed updates and traded on the peaks via VFX—our online currency payments platform. But Friday has seen gains eroded, especially against the dol¬lar as low yielding currencies have been investors choice of a safe haven move. US and European equity mar¬kets declined on weak US economic number, which has continued into Asian trade, effectively wiping out ca¬ble’s gains on Thursday. The move higher for sterling yesterday came after better than expected retail sales figures hit the wires, with a gain of 1.1% posted against an expected number of 0.4%. This saw cable jump an impressive one and a half cents to push GBP/USD to $1.5671. Against the euro we also saw sterling strength as GBP/EUR home in on the 1.22 mark, just falling short. The pound traded most of the day towards intraday highs, trying to beat off the market perception of moving back into safe haven currencies on the back of the weak US economic data, but as Asia followed the US and European with moves lower, so did sterling. We have now lost over a cent against the greenback, with GBP/EUR also giving up half a percent on the euro.
Data: Not a sausage
Euro:
The euro has finished the week on the back foot, pretty much giving up had fought gains made over the last week or so as the sovereign debt issues surrounding certain European countries has come back into traders thoughts. Combined with weak economic data from the states, the single currency has taken a bit of a bashing and fallen against the majors. The euro has come close to its June lows on sterling, Mid July lows against the dollar and a seven week low against the yen. Yesterdays Voltrex currency report covered the view that Greece was once again dragging down the value of the single currency, and the markets suspect that Greece will have to restructure its debt sooner or later, which analysts will definitely be keeping a close eye on.
Data: Nada
General:
• The yen lost some ground yesterday after Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Friday that the country may need to act promptly on economic stimulus and that he was watching the currency mar¬ket with “great interest”.
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| GBP/USD | 1.5543 |
| GBP/EUR | 1.2139 |
| EUR/USD | 1.2810 |
| GBP/JPY | 132.67 |
| GBP/AUD | 1.7463 |
| GBP/NZD | 2.2051 |
| GBP/ZAR | 11.3596 |
| GBP/CHF | 1.6026 |
| GBP/CAD | 1.6187 |
| GBP/SGD | 2.1054 |
| GBP/THB | 48.96 |
| GBP/HKD | 12.0572 red-down; blue-up (snap shot) |
For more information or to get the latest spot rates contact:
John Paul Georgiou
Senior Foreign Exchange Broker