Pound starts on a high.

20 January, 2014

Tom Arnold

Last weekend finished on a big high for the Pound following significantly higher than anticipated retail sales figures for the UK over the Christmas period. Against both the Euro and the Dollar, Sterling is close to the highs seen a couple of times in recent months, that otherwise date back to January last year.

Some analysts believe the Pound is currently a bit over priced and could be due a bit of a rebound. This is mainly technical rather than data driven, so is likely to play out in the short term, but will require data support before it is capitalised on in either direction.

This week starts off slowly for data with nothing much of note either today or tomorrow. There is CPI inflation from New Zealand this evening and the German ZEW survey of economic sentiment tomorrow morning, but otherwise not much at all.

Wednesday hits with a bit of a bang with Australian CPI inflation, Bank of England minutes from this month’s policy meeting, UK unemployment and both Canada and Japan’s monthly interest rate and policy decisions.

Thursday starts to quieten down a bit again with plenty of manufacturing data out for Europe and the US, but not much else of note, and Friday is another quiet day with UK mortgage approval numbers and Canadian CPI, but not a lot else.

With rates close to recent peaks and the possibility of a correction down, it is likely a good time to consider a forward contract, and no one is better placed to explain how they work than your CI account manager.