Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 29/02/12

The Pound gained against the US Dollar and slightly higher against the Euro in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1794 at the morning’s open to trade down to the day’s low of 1.1775, before trading back to 1.1807 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 1.5901 before trading back to 1.5885 by the European market close. The Pound also finished higher against the New Zealand Dollar and the Australian Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.8859 at the morning’s open to trade up towards 1.8960 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4715 and finished the session higher at 1.4754.

Yesterday from the UK we had the CBI Retail Survey come in better than expected at -2 vs. -12 and -22 from the previous month. Today we will look out for the 09:30 GMT Mortgage approvals for the month of January, which is expected to increase from 52.9k to 54.0k and Consumer Credit for the month of January, also expected to show an increase from £-0.4bln to £0.2bln.

The Euro declined against the Pound and slightly against the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3457 to trade down to the day low of 1.3389 before closing out at 1.3451 by the European market close. In spite of the fact S&P lowered its rating on Greece to selective default from CC, the pair finished back near to the opening level as market participants look forward to today’s 3 year LTRO by the ECB.

Yesterday we had some economic data from the Euro-zone; with German GfK Consumer Confidence Survey (Mar) coming in line with expectations at 6.0 up from 5.9 previously, followed by German consumer Price Index year-on-year betting expectations at 2.5% vs. 2.3% previously. As for the Euro-zone, Consumer Confidence came in slightly worse that expected at -20.3 vs. -20.2, followed by Business Climate Indicator also coming in worse than expected at -0.18 vs. -0.15 expected by economists. However Economic Confidence from the Euro-zone continued to show improvement coming in at 94.4 up from 93.4 previously.

This morning we have seen German Imports month-on-month come in better than expected at 1.3% vs 0.3% from the prior month, followed by German unemployment change coming in at 0k vs. -5k expected by economist. Today we will look out for the 10:00 GMT Euro-zone Consumer Confidence year-on-year which is expected to increase from 1.6% to 1.7%.

The US Dollar declined against the Pound and gained slightly against the Euro currencies yesterday. We had some mixed economic data from the US yesterday; with Durable Goods Order (Jan) declining from 3.2% to -3.0%, followed by S&P Case Shiller 20 City coming in at -0.5% vs. -0.35% , which was still lower than -0.74% from the prior month. However later in the day Consumer Confidence showed improvement for the month of February, increasing from 61.5 to 70.8. Also Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for the month of February also increased from 12 to 20.

Today we will look out for the 13:00 GMT Personal Consumption and Gross Domestic Product Annualised where economists are expecting no change at 2.8%. At 15:00 GMT today we have Fed’s Bernanke delivering a Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report.

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