Quiet start for USD and EUR, GBP steals gains

2 December, 2014

Matthew Boyle

Yesterday was a relatively quiet start for a new week and indeed a new month. In the morning we had a raft of Euro manufacturing data albeit none of any major note and all in all was a mixed bag. The morning’s winner was certainly GBP which posted a largely inflated Consumer Credit report from October showing 1.087bn as opposed to the predicted figure of 0.950bn. Perhaps as the cold weather has hit the UK and Christmas songs are beginning to play people are now hitting the shops and the “plastic” – perhaps this increase is an explaining factor in the recently poor retail sales figures from the UK. Furthermore the UK posted positive manufacturing data, showing an increase to 53.5 from an expected 53.0, as a result of this and the credit report the pound gained and by the end of the day’s trading had stolen around 0.5 of a cent against the single currency.

Interestingly as the Dollar took the main stage in the way of data releases – with ISM manufacturing data in the afternoon- it was again a mixed bag. Despite showing an increase in manufacturing PMI the data for prices paid came in massively under expectation. As such the markets reacted and partly due to perhaps the amount of ground the USD has recently gained the dollar lost ground. By the end of the day’s trading against GBP it lost over a cent, and against EUR lost near 0.75 of a cent.

Today will be an interesting day’s trading for the majors as again we have a relatively quiet day, so will we see a continuation of yesterdays trends? Certainly if the US post any figures we can expect the Dollar to continue to suffer, and with the pound slowly mounting an assault against the Euro many watch with keen eyes hoping to get back to the recent rates of a near 6 year high.

Outside the most commonly traded majors we have a big piece of data from Australia with the RBA interest rate decision, so any of you with upcoming money transfers to Australia to make would be well advised to stay in close contact with your Currency index account manager.

Currency Index can help you stay well informed and well ahead of the market.

Tuesday:

  • 3:30am (AUD) – RBA Interest Rate Decision
  • 9:30am (UK) – PMI Construction

Wednesday:

 

  • 12:30am (AUD) – Gross Domestic Product
  • 9:30am (UK) – Services PMI
  • 10:00am (EUR) – Gross Domestic Product / Retail Sales
  • 3:00pm (CAD) – Interest Rate Decision

 

Thursday:

 

  • 12:00pm (UK) – Interest Rate Decision
  • 12:45pm (EUR) – Interest Rate Decision
  • 1:30pm (EUR) – ECB Press Conference

 

Friday:

 

  • 9:30am (UK) – Consumer Inflation Expectations
  • 1:30pm (USD) – Non-farm Payrolls / Unemployment Rate
  • 1:30pm (CAD) – Unemployment Rate

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