Can Sterling March Upwards

Last week was a fairly quiet one as far as the pound was concerned, with very little data of note, bar the mid week Bank of England minutes, unemployment data and budget report from George Osborne. None of which really gave sterling anything to push on from having been on the back-foot across the board for the past couple of weeks. As the month comes nearly to a close this week, will we have any interesting data releases to help move sterling on wards and upwards or will we see further gains from the dollar, which spent the latter part of last week gaining across the board after the Feds Janet Yellen showed she’s more hawk than American bald eagle. 

The greenback made gains across the board, most notably against sterling, the euro and Australian dollar.

For those corporate clients who send dollars to the Far East to settle purchase invoices, you saw a near 1.4 percent increase in the cost of the currency. Those clients buying that dream home in the Orlando sun, with a typical transfer of $250,000, the purchase got £1800 more expensive by Friday than if you had traded before the Fed meeting on Wednesday evening. 

So what will the coming week bring?

Below is our pick of the coming data releases and when to look out for them…

Monday morning we have German and EU Services and Manufacturing PMI figures joined later after lunch by US Chicago Fed Activity Index and Manufacturing PMI

Tuesday brings the first set of UK data releases for the week at 9.30am in the form of inflation figures, which always prove a key release for sterling. Later in the US we get consumer confidence stats and new home sales, along with a speech from Australian RBA deputy Governor Lowe mid afternoon. 

Wednesday is all stateside with the key Durable Goods Order figures at 3.30pm and another US bank stress test in late evening. 

Thursday sees the UK retail sales figure released in the morning and we then look across the pond to US GDP, jobless claims and new home sales from 12.30pm.

Friday we have UK GfK consumer confidence which comes out just after midnight and GDP figures at 9.30am. Closely followed by EU consumer confidence and economic sentiment data at 10am and German inflation figures at 1pm.

To finish the week the US release some further inflation figures and finally the Reuters Sentiment Index. 

Sentiment can change quickly as we have seen many times recently so whatever the nature of your transfer give one the team a call to discuss the options available to you in order to make the transaction as risk free as possible.

The brokers at Currency Index have a wealth of experience in navigating the volatile currency markets and can help provide some expert guidance on your specific requirement and which of the various contract types available might best suit your needs.