A Quiet End To February

Thursday was a fairly quiet day for sterling, which managed to make some gains against the Euro (and related European currencies) but did little against the US dollar or other majors. The gains against the Euro were mainly due to poor Eurozone data as German unemployment rose above expectations and EU and German CPI figures also came in below forecast, allowing the pound to gain ¾ of a cent and the USD to gain similarly against the single currency. With a raft of data releases stateside, the GDP was the main focus and with an increase to the forecast 0.6% (actual figure was 0.9%) one would’ve expected the dollar to make ground, but in reality gains were limited as the month drew to a close.

Overnight the votes came in for the by-election in Eastleigh here in the UK, the seat relinquished by disgraced Chris Huhne. The Liberals were expected to keep the seat, which they did, but the surprise was UKIP overtaking the Conservatives and taking second place in the polls. Despite the humiliation to the government, losing out to a party which advocates independence from Europe, the result seems to have had little impact on the pound as the markets open this morning.

So the month kicks off with the pound relatively unchanged from the close yesterday. Today we start the conveyor belt of data releases, with the UK seeing money supply and mortgage data coming out. We’ve already seen Nationwide house price data, which came out as expected, showing prices are totally flat on a month on month basis. In Canada, we have GDP released later today along with US consumer expenditure data and consumer sentiment figures from the US.

It looks to be a quiet start to March, but as we know, the markets are particularly volatile at present so don’t let yourself get caught out. If you have a currency transfer coming up, keep in touch with your broker here at Currency Index to keep abreast of market movement.