Smart Daily Currency Note | A steady day for sterling

Sterling

After the excitement of late last week, sterling traded in a fairly narrow range yesterday. Against the euro it peaked at  1.244 and against the US dollar at 1.609 before giving back some of these gains in the latter part of the day. Data released showed that full-time hiring had reached a one and a half year high in the UK, alleviating concerns that the recent rise in employment was purely down to the temporary work created by the Olympics.  There is very little data out of the UK today bar the benchmark 10-year bond auction which is always a useful guide to gauge how investors currently view the need for safe haven assets. Get in touch now for the most up to date price.

Euro

It was a mixed day for the euro yesterday, declining through the morning following the announcement by Mario Monti, the Italian Prime Minister, that he was to resign after the upcoming 2013 budget vote.  Poor French and Italian Industrial data helped to drag prices down with traders looking to the pound as a safe haven. The tide turned somewhat in the afternoon as the euro strengthened. Today sees German Economic Sentiment data and with Germany as the core of Europe, good results could bring some confidence back to the markets, and continue to strengthen the euro. Get in touch now for a more up to date report and a quote.

US dollar

The US dollar weakened broadly yesterday despite it being a flat day on data released. This was mainly due to "Fiscal Cliff" fears returning with all eyes are on President Obama's speech in Detroit who will be promoting his plan to avoid this. His plan features a $1.6 trillion in tax increases and also $600 billion in spending cuts. Furthermore, with the Federal Bank meeting on Thursday for the final time this year, much of the focus will be on whether or not the central bank will start another round of monetary easing.  Today we have the US trade balance figures with unexpected data being sure to cause volatility, so call in now.

Worldwide

Elsewhere, the best performing currency yesterday was the Polish zloty after two central bankers suggested that the Polish central bank would look to cut interest rates next month. The South African rand and Swedish krona both struggled yesterday, with the South African rand particular weak in anticipation of inflation data released later on this week. Chinese trade balance data released yesterday was much worse than expected. The main released today will be trade balance data from Canada; but, not much else is expected to be released. Call in now to get a live price from your trader.