Rocky road for the first day of the month

1 August, 2013

Graham Harborne

We head into the new month today with the pound very much on the back foot and don’t be surprised to see things get worse today. So far this week it has been relatively quiet in terms of data releases here in the UK but since GDP figures were released last week the pound has been in free fall. Interesting that figures came in as expected and we have seen such a sharp sell off of the pound. It clearly indicates that the markets were expecting a much stronger GDP reading and on the bright-side imagine what would have happened if the figures had been worse ! Touching on 4 month lows against the euro I hope some of you listened and acted on our opinion that rates were particularly good throughout the month of July? Today is not going to be a walk in the park either. We have that rare day where 2 of the biggest announcements within the economies of both the UK and Euro zone take place. BoE and ECB interest rates are announced at lunchtime and with a surprising accompanying statement by the BoE last month will we have a surprise in the banks stance on monetary policy. With the new BoE governor now into his second month it will be interesting to see if he has had much sway over the other committee members. We also have a raft of PMI data out, again from both Europe and the UK so we could see some volatility today. With the pound already under pressure you may want to take the opportunity this morning to contact your account manager here at Currency Index to see what the best options are for any upcoming overseas transaction. Last night in the U.S the FED left their monetary policy unchanged which had little effect on the markets and today we have PMI data released along with some unemployment data. It’s going to be a busy day so good luck to you all. Don’t forget you can always speak with one of our specialists brokers or myself to discuss sending money abroad.