Friday Currency Market Report

The last couple of days has seen a slight shift in sentiment on the currency markets, with the previously unfavoured Pound making some gains against both the Euro and the Dollar. The main reason for this is actually as simple as a correction of recent over selling, but this has also been aided by some slightly more positive data from the UK economy – most notably manufacturing and industrial numbers on Wednesday.

Yesterday was a tale of central banks with the UK’s monthly policy statement from the Bank of England and in the evening the release of the minutes from last month’s Federal Reserve policy statement. Neither threw up anything of significant interest, but it was clear from the Fed’s minutes that interest rate rises in the US will have to wait for a more positive domestic economic position, and as such the Dollar weakened.

The day ahead is pretty quiet, with UK trade balance the only release of any note this side of the pond and some import/export indices from the US later on this afternoon. In the absence of any important data, it is likely trends will continue, so make sure you stay in close contact with your CI account manager to be kept informed of how this will likely affect your upcoming currency requirement.