Daily Foreign Exchange Market Update

Mon, February 20, 2012

The Pound closed out last week having made a slight loss against the US Dollar and gained against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate moved up from Monday’s open at 1.1909, to close the week up at 1.2023. The pair fluctuated in a range of 1.2079 weeks high to 1.1897 being the low across the week. The GBP/USD exchange rate declined slightly across the course of the week, starting from Monday’s open at 1.5818 the pair traded to a week low of 1.5643 before finishing the week back around the 1.5813 level. The Pound also finished higher against the New Zealand Dollar and the Australian Dollar in the foreign exchange market last week. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.8885, to trade higher around 1.8984 by the close of the week. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4683 and finished the week higher at 1.4785.

The week ahead will see some key economic data released from the UK. The first significant data to look out for will be released Tuesday at 09:30 GMT, with UK Public Sector Net Borrowing (Jan) expected to decrease from £13.7bln to £-6.3bln. On Wednesday we have Bank of England Minutes due at 09:30 GMT and to finish the week we have the UK GDP figures also due at 09:30 GMT on Friday.

The Euro gained across the board throughout last week in the currency exchange market. The EUR/USD rate picked up from 1.3279 at Monday’s open, to trade down to a week low of 1.2974 before coming back to 1.3150 by the close of the European trading session on Friday.

The main market focus for the week ahead in Europe will be at 15:00 GMT on Tuesday with the release of Euro-zone Consumer Confidence expected at -20.1 up slightly from -20.7. On Wednesday we will see French CPI, PMI Manufacturing and PMI Services to be released by 08:00 GMT, followed by German PMI at 08:30 GMT and Euro-zone PMI at 09:00 GMT. We will also keep an eye on Euro-zone Industrial New Orders due at 10:00 GMT which is expected to decline slightly from -2.7% to -2.8% year-on-year. To end the week we will look out for German GDP figures due at 07:00 GMT on Friday.

This morning we have seen French Production Outlook come in better than expected at -27 vs. -36 expected by economists. Italian Industrial Orders also came in better than expected at 09:00GMT with the month-on-month  figure coming in at 5.5% vs. the expected 0.4% and 0.2% from the prior month. There is no other scheduled data release from the Euro-Zone today. So focus will be left on the development of the Greek bailout fund.

The US Dollar gained against the Euro, but managed to gain slightly against pound last week in the currency markets. This week’s key events to look out for will be on Tuesday with Chicago Fed Nat Activity index (Jan) expected to increase from 0.17 to 0.22 by economists. Later in the week we have US Existing Home Sales on Wednesday at 15:00 GMT, followed by the US House Price Index due on Thursday at 15:00GMT. To finish the week we will look out for the University of Michigan Confidence (Feb) which is expected to increase slightly from 72.5 to 72.8.

This Daily Market Update is brought to you by The Market Team @ KBRFX – Exchange Rate, Currency Conversion & Foreign Currency Transfer specialists.

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