Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 28/02/12

The Pound gained a touch higher against the Euro and declined against the US Dollar in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1811 at the morning’s open to trade up to the day’s high of 1.1847, before trading back to 1.1815 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5858 to trade up to the day’s high of 1.5875 before trading back to 1.5844 by the European market close.

Today we will look out for the 11:00 GMT CBI Reported Sales for the month of February, which expected to increase from -22 to -12.

The Euro declined against the US Dollar and slightly against the Pound in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3426 to trade down to the day low of 1.3366 before closing out at 1.3409 by the European market close. Yesterday we had some economic data from the Euro-zone; with French Producer Prices year-on-year came in at 4.2% which was better than expected at 4.1% but down from 4.6% previously. However the month-on-month figure for French Producer Price Index came in better at 0.6% compared to the prior month of -0.1%.

This morning we have seen the release of German GfK Consumer Confidence Survey (Mar) which came in line with expectations at 6.0 up from 5.9 previously. At 10:00 GMT today we will look out for the Euro-zone Consumer Confidence, Business Climate Indicator, Economic Confidence, Industrial and Services Confidence all expected to come in better than the previous month. Later in the day we will see the German Consumer Price Index year-on-year due at 13:00, where economists are expecting no change at 2.1%.

The US Dollar gained against the Pound and the Euro currencies yesterday. We had some positive economic data from the US yesterday; with Pending Home Sales year-on-year coming in lower than expected at 10.3% vs. 10.7%, however was a lot higher from 4.4% across the year. Home Sales on a month-on-month basis also showed improvement from -1.9% in the prior month to 2.0%. to end the day we improvement in the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity (Feb) coming in at 17.8% vs. 15.3 from the prior month.

Today we will look out for the 13:30 GMT US Durable Goods Orders (Jan) expected to decline from 3.0% to -1.0%, followed by Consumer Confidence (Feb) and Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (Feb) both due at 15:00 GMT.

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