Europe back in focus

After last week’s surprise GDP reading in the UK yesterday was a much more subdued day in the currency markets. We saw the pound make tremendous gains at the end of last week moving between 1 and 2 % against the majors and although rates are still much lower than they were at the beginning of 2013, it seems for the time being at least that the pound has found some stability.

Against the USD yesterday the pound continued to push on but it did lose a little ground against the euro as more stability within the Italian government prevailed and the ‘risk’ trade was very much on which helped the bloc currency edge higher.

This morning there are number of European and UK data release but nothing of huge importance. This afternoon we have U.S consumer confidence with figures expected to be positive so we could see some volatility on the back of that release. The main event this week however is the ECB rate decision on Thursday. With experts very much split on whether there will be a rate cut or not it’s likely to have a big impact on the markets whatever the decision. If you are needing currency this week it is worth contacting your Currency Index account manager who can explain the likely movements dependent on the outcome.