Currency News This Week

Last week was a busy one on the markets with all of the majors making strong moves in one way or another. Early in the week the Pound was winning the currency race, with rates for buying both the Euro and the Dollar up to close to pre-election highs. Largely this was backed by technical sentiment rather than any particular driving force in news/data terms, but ever decreasing unemployment and an increase in wages also helped to support a stronger Pound.

The Euro took over the baton on Thursday when Mario Draghi and the ECB left both their interest rate and QE program as they were, and delivered a very relaxed press conference, which served to dampen any fears of Mario talking the Euro down. As a result, the Euro pushed back both the Pound and the Dollar by over a cent.

On Friday the Dollar came to the fore. Despite a mixed bag of economic data, investors picked up on positive Q4 GDP figures, durable goods orders and increasing bond yields to back the Dollar, which pushed back against its major counter parts and took back a significant chunk of its recent losses.

The week ahead is another busy one, with major data out in all of the largest economic zones. The highlights will likely be the Fed’s policy announcement on Wednesday evening and then US Non-Farm payrolls on Friday, so if you have a US Dollar purchase in the offing, make sure to stay in close contact with your CI account manager:

Monday

ECB Praet + Lautenschlager + Coeure Speeches

US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure

Tuesday

Australian New Home Sales

UK Consumer Credit

UK Mortgage Approvals

European GDP

European Consumer, Services + Industrial Sentiment

German CPI Inflation

BoE Governor Carney Speech

Wednesday

Australian CPI Inflation

German Retail Sales

German Unemployment

European CPI Inflation

US Employment Change

US Pending Homes Sales

US Fed Interest Rate Decision + Policy Statement

Thursday

UK House Prices

UK Manufacturing PMI

European Manufacturing PMI

US Jobless Change

US Manufacturing PMI

Friday

UK Construction PMI

European PPI

US Non-Farm Payrolls

US Unemployment Rate

US Factory Orders

For those of you with Sterling in hand and an upcoming currency requirement now is a fairly positive time, with rates for buying Euros and Dollars still close to those pre-election levels. However last week saw that both of those other majors still have significant ammo left and so you might be best to consider securing your rate sooner rather than later to make sure of getting these levels while they are still available.