Exchange rates holding steady

The last 24 hours have not seen an awful lot of movement for Sterling, with the Pound managing to hold its own against most of the major currencies, just off the summit of the recent 22 month highs.

We are now into May though and as is usual for the start of a month, a busy few days of data releases home and abroad is on the way. Today is no exception with purchasing manager index figures out for both Germany and the Eurozone as a whole, which should give some sign as to the performance of their manufacturing industries and also German unemployment figures as well. The PMI figures are expected to be a little lower than previous, with German unemployment not expected to change much at all. Watch out for movement on the Euro’s rate pairings if these consensuses prove to be incorrect.

In the UK we have some mortgage approvals data and consumer credit figures both out at 9.30am. The expectation for mortgage approvals is they could be slightly down, which could see Sterling drop off a little, so if you need to trade today then first thing could prove a better time to avoid this.