Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 13/03/12

Yesterday the pound declined against the US Dollar and against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1954 at the morning’s open to trade in a downtrend towards the low of 1.877 before trading back to 1.1877 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.57677 to trade up to the day’s high of 1.5696 before trading back to 1.5623 by the European market close. The Pound also declined against the New Zealand Dollar and but gained against the Australian Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9173 at the morning’s open to trade down towards 1.9120 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4893 and finished the session higher at 1.4907.

Yesterday we had no significant economic data from the UK. However today we will look out for the 09:30GMT Visible Trade Balance, which is expected to decline further from -£7111 to -£7900.

The Euro gained against the Pound and against the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3115 to trade up to the day high of 1.3156 before closing out at 1.3148 by the European market close. Yesterday morning we had seen German Wholesale Price Index for month-on-month and year-on-year come in line with expectations at 1.0% and 2.6% respectively. Italian GDP also showed slight on the year-on-year figure increasing from -0.5 to -0.4.

This morning we have seen the release of the French Consumer Price Index (Feb) year-on-year come in line with expectations at 2.3% and the month-on-month figure came in at -0.4%, both unchanged from the prior month.

Today our key focus on the Euro-zone will be the 10:00 GMT German Zew Survey for the month of March which is expected to increase from 5.4 to 10.

The US Dollar gained against the Pound, but declined against the Euro currencies yesterday. We had no economic data scheduled from the US yesterday; however we had the release of the Monthly Budget Statement which declined further from -$222.5bln to -$231.7bln.

Today we have an important day in regards to economic data from the US, firstly with the release of Advance Retail Sales (FEB) due at 12:30 GMT; which is expected to increase from 0.4% to 1.1%. Followed by Business Inventories due at 14:00 GMT, where economists are expecting an increase from 0.4% to 0.5%. Finally after the European trading session we have the FOMC Rate Decision due at 18:15GMT, where economists are expecting no change to current interest rates.

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