Stable rates for end of month opportunity

Yesterday’s trading was another stable day with an absence of any key data releases. Sterling traded within a small range against both the Euro and US Dollar, within the highs and lows of recent days. This is because the pound has reached significant resistance levels against both currencies which causes exchange rates to trade in a sideways motion before either pushing through or dropping back down again. Considering the trend is currently negative despite recent gains, the far greater likelihood is that the pound starts to drop from these levels in the weeks to come. This means that opportunities to buy at these 6 weeks highs may not last much longer so make sure you move quick if you have an up and coming requirement.

There were some eco-stats for the Euro-zone and US yesterday worth mentioning. Euro-zone consumer confidence met expectations at -9.3, and in the afternoon US GDP was confirmed at just 0.5% growth for Q1 against market expectations of 0.7%, and more importantly a steep drop from 1.4% in the previous quarter. Despite the poor data the USD value was not affected since it had already depreciated somewhat in recent days.

Today we round off both the week and another month, before a UK bank holiday weekend. The day ahead has a few announcements of note, UK Net lending to Individuals at 9:30am, Euro-zone inflation and unemployment rate at 10am, and consumer expenditure for the US at 1:30pm. The first week of May will be heavy with UK data releases and with it comes added risk to the current buying levels. Speak to your broker today to take advantage of the recent improvement before the opportunity has passed.