A Mixed Week For The Majors

Last week ended in a mixed bag for the pound which finish making some gains against the ever strengthening US dollar as well as a number of other majors like the Kiwi dollar, Norwegian Krona (which is under pressure from falling oil prices) and the Canadian dollar (again, falling foul of oil prices).

The euro started Friday on the back foot following the release of trade balance data which came out under forecasted expectations. NUK industrial and manufacturing production figures were mixed, whilst trade balance was better than expected, all aiding the pound to make some early gains.

Canadian employment data and housing figures after lunch missed analyst predictions, helping the pound gain a cent and a half against the Loonie over the day while US non-farm payroll adding 252,000 jobs last month (12,000 more than expected) helped the greenback make back some gains it had lost earlier although finishing back at its weakest level for the week as the pound emerged victorious. This may well have been down to profit taking but for those buying USD it didnt matter, we were trading well over a cent better than earlier in the week.

Overall last week wasn’t great for the pound and this week could be the same. We have very little in the way of data releases, apart from inflation figures on Tuesday, which of course are key due to their influence over interest rates.

The other releases of note come on Wednesday with US retail sales, Thursday with Australian unemployment, US jobless claims and PPI, with the week ending on Friday with EU and US inflation. Not much to go on meaning we will likely be sentiment led so it could be another strong week for the US dollar to the detriment of the euro or pound (or both!) Stay in touch with the CI team to be keep up to date.