Market Update August 22nd

As has been discussed in our reports this week, there is not much in the way of important local data out this week until Friday when the first GDP revision for the last quarter is released. The initial figure of -0.7% could well be revised up or down, with some more positive analysts hoping that some of the more positive data elsewhere in the UK economy, might actually cause an upward revision. This would be good news for the Pound if indeed it does happen, but with construction and manufacturing so desperately depressed, it seems quite unlikely that even the Olympic effect will overcome the odds.

Tomorrow sees some quite important data come out of the Eurozone, with German GDP, German, French and Eurozone Manufacturing and Services PMI, and the all important Samaras and Merkel meeting on the Greece bailout situation. Friday sees a continuation of this with Samaras meeting Hollande for further discussions. All in all it could be quite an unpleasant couple of days for the Euro, so anyone looking to sell Euros could be well advised to get their business done, before these data releases come out.

Across the pond there are a couple of fairly big releases today, with the Bank of Canada governor due to speak this afternoon, and then the Federal Reserve releasing the meetings from their most recent policy meeting, this evening. Tomorrow we also have some US employment figures released as well. The GBPUSD rate is up to its best level for some weeks at the moment, so if you need to send Dollars abroad, or any of the pegged currencies such as Omani Rials or UAE Dirhams, then why wait to see if this meeting will cause a drop…

For those of you well versed in the currency markets the name of George Soros will undoubtedly ring a bell, as one of the men who has made an unbelievable amount of money buying and selling various currencies around the world at various critical times in the past 20 years. For some reason George has decided to use some of his hard earned gains to buy himself a 7.9% stake in Manchester United Football Club. Many market analysts think the Glazer run Man Utd is a suicidal investment, but Mr Soros is rarely wrong, so despite their opening game loss to Everton and the poor showing from new signing Robin Van Persie, watch out for interesting news from the markets in the coming weeks.