Quiet Before The Storm

Friday was a day very much lacking in any real data releases from anywhere other than over the pond in Canada, where a wave of Consumer Price Index scores were revealed to be lower than expected, where only one of the six CPIs were actually level with expectations.

In Europe, prior to Dr Jens Weidmann’s speech at 12:30pm on Friday, Germany announced a worse than expected change in average prices in Germany’s primary markets, coming in at 0.4% rather than at least 0.7% which was expected. The speech itself enabled the Euro to surge upwards after initially dropping with news of this poor data, with Weidmann downplaying ECB rate cut hopes and that the rates are “currently appropriate” going on to say that we shouldn’t expect much from a rate cut as central banks can’t resolve “structural problems”.

Closer to home saw negative news for the Pound, as government bonds dropped after news was released that Fitch had reduced the nations credit rating by one step from AAA to AA+, citing a weaker economic and fiscal outlook, becoming the second company to lower the UK’s rating inside two months.

Today sees a flurry of data releases from the USA (Home sales, bill auctions and the Chicago Fed National Activity Index) and speeches from ECB governing council member Christian Noyer, after consumer confidence information from the Euro zone and BOE deputy governor Paul Tucker speech later this afternoon.

Keep your finger firmly on the pulse, stay in touch with your Currency Index account manager and stay ahead of the markets!