Sterling had a mixed week rising to €1.255/£1 against the euro; but, dropping back down to US$1.550/£1 against the US dollar. The main reason for the loss of ground against the US$ was the Bank of England announcement that it will inject a further £50billion pounds into the economy though quantitative easing. A lot of focus has been given to Barclays former boss Bob Diamond as the LIBOR fixing scandal developed which the markets fear could spread to many other banks which in turn would severely damage the UK’s financial market as a whole. Mixed Purchasing Managers' Indices (PMI) figures were released in the week with the biggest shock coming from the construction industry which showed a contraction when expansion had been anticipated. Inflation data in the form of the Producer Price Index (PPI) is the only significant data released today as the markets pay closer attention to the Non-farm payroll data being released in the US. Call in now for the latest news and a live quote.

The euro had an extremely poor week which was epitomised by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to cut interest rates to 0.75% yesterday. This saw the euro tumble against the majority of currencies. Whilst the rate cut was widely expected, it disappointed the market as it underlines the weakness of the Eurozone in general. On the data front, unemployment in Europe reached a record high of 11.1%; whilst PMI data released also confirmed the Eurozone is in recession which goes someway to explain the ECB’s decision to cut the central bank interest rate. German industrial production figures is the only data of note released today as the markets absorb the vast quantity of data announced yesterday whilst looking towards the US for influence. Call in now for the latest quote and a live update.

The US dollar performed well this week despite worse than expected PMI data being released, with the manufacturing figures actually showing a contraction in manufacturing when slight growth had been anticipated. Other data included the monthly factory orders beating expectations by rising by 0.7% when last month figures recorded a contraction of 0.7%. US unemployment figures released yesterday came in much better than expected which bodes well for the highly influential Non-farm payrolls data released today; but, we will have to wait and see. Call in now for the latest news and a live quote.

Elsewhere, like in the UK and Europe the main news this week came from the central banks; the Peoples Bank of China announced that it had cut interest rates yesterday; whilst the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Riksbank (Sweden’s Central Bank) kept rates on hold. The Australian dollar continued to strengthen as Australian data revealed that the monthly building approval figures rose dramatically by 27.3% when only a 5.1% increase was expected; whilst much better than expected retail sales figures were also released. Other data released includes Swiss retail sales which were much better than expected posting a reading of 6.2% when only 2.1% had been anticipated. Swiss foreign currency reserve figures are released first thing this morning; however the majority of data released today comes from Canada which includes building permits, employment data and PMI figures. Call in now for the latest news and a live quote.


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