Positive US Retail Sales fails to boost dollar

Thursday’s trading offered no key data during the morning and so Sterling exchange rates were largely driven by movement of other currencies. The volatile EUR/USD pairing has been dictating much of the movements for GBP/EUR and GBP/USD of late, and this was the case again yesterday with the pound making gains against the Euro recovering some of the recent losses, but dropping against the greenback after good gains on Wednesday.

There was one main data announcement in the afternoon for the US with their latest Retail Sales figures released at 1:30pm. Forecasts were for an improved figure of 1.1% growth in May, up from 0.2% in April, and actual results exceeded this posting growth of 1.2%. A strong figure that momentarily strengthen the USD before rebounding nearly 1 cent against the pound. This was a peculiar movement considering the good figures and underline the unpredictability of the markets and the higher levels of volatility that are currently being experienced. Volatility can be a good thing as often there are opportunities to buy or sell at better rates within a shorter timeframe. These opportunities are therefore shorter lived so to enable yourself to take advantage of any favourable spikes, make sure you are in close contact with your broker regarding any up and coming requirements.

Today is another quiet day for data with some minor released to be announced at 10am with Euro-zone Industrial production, and US Producer Price Index at 1:30pm.