Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 16/03/12

The Pound gained against the US Dollar and gained fractionally against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.2004 at the morning’s open to trade in a open range between the day low of 1.1971, and high of 1.2013 before trading back to 1.2005 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5666 to trade down to the day’s low of 1.5632 before trading higher towards 1.5718 by the European market close. The Pound declined against the Australian Dollar and against the New Zealand Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9257 at the morning’s open to trade down towards 1.9166 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4932 and finished the session lower at 1.4896.

There was no scheduled data release from the UK yesterday and there is also no expected economic data today.

The Euro declined fractionally against the Pound, but managed to gain against the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3050 to trade down to the low of the day of 1.3038, before trading up towards the 1.3090 level by the European market close.

Yesterday we had seen the Euro-zone Employment quarter-on-quarter come in line with the previous figure of -0.2% and Euro-zone Labour costs increased from 2.6% to 2.8% across the year.

Data from the Euro-zone is fairly light today with the release of Euro-zone Trade Balance due at 10:00 GMT; however German Chancellor Merkel is to hold a news conference to speak on the German Industry due at 11:30 GMT.

The US Dollar declined against the Pound and against the Euro currencies yesterday. We had a good amount of data scheduled from the US yesterday, with the release of US Producer Price Index which declined from 4.1% to 3.3%, followed by Empire Manufacturing coming better than expected at 20.21 versus 17.5 and up from the prior release of 19.53. Initial and continuing jobless also showed improvement, with the Initial claims declining from 365k to 351k and Continuing Claims declining from the 3424k to 3343k.

We have important data out from the US today, firstly with the release of Consumer Price Index year-on-year (Feb) due at 12:30 GMT, which is expected to decline from 2.3% to 2.2%. At 13:15 GMT we have the release of the US Industrial Production, followed by University of Michigan Confidence due at 13:55 GMT.

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