Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 17/04/12

The Pound gained against the US Dollar yesterday, but declined against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.2139 at the morning’s open to trade to the low of the day of 1.2120, before trading back around 1.2139 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5826 to trade up to the day’s high of 1.5871 before trading back towards 1.5863 by the European market close. The Pound also gained against both the Australian Dollar and the New Zealand Dollar in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9294 at the morning’s open to trade up towards 1.9369 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.5308 and finished the session higher at 1.5340.

On the economic data front we had nothing schedule from the UK yesterday; however this morning at 09:30 GMT we will look out for the UK Consumer Price Index (Mar), where economists are expecting a slight decline from 2.4% to 2.3% for the year-on-year core figure. We will also be looking out for the Retail Price Index (Mar) figures which are due at 09:30 GMT.

The Euro gained against the US dollar but declined against the Pound in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3016 and traded in a small uptrend by the afternoon towards the high of 1.3087, before trading back towards 1.3087 by the European market close.

Yesterday we had fairly light economic data from the Euro-zone Trade balance missing expectations at €2.8bln vs. €3.0bln; however the trade balance was up from the prior release of -€7.9bln. Also Italian Trade Balance came in better than expected at -€1113mln vs. -€1337mln and up from the prior release of -€4346mln.

This Morning we have seen EU Car Registrations for the month of month increase from the prior month of -9.7% to -7.0%. Later this morning we have the release of the Spanish 12 & 18 month bond auctions due at 09:30 GMT followed by Euro-zone Consumer Price Index (Mar) at 10:00 GMT, where economists are expecting a slight decline from 2.7% to 2.6%. Also to follow will be the German ZEW Economic Survey which is expected to decline by economists to 19.0 from 22.3 for the month of April.

The US Dollar declined against the Pound and against the Euro currencies yesterday. On the Economic data front the US posted fairly mixed data yesterday, with the Advance Retail Sales (Mar) coming in better than expected at 0.8% vs. 0.3% but was still lower from the previous revised figure of 1.0%. Also Empire Manufacturing posted a decline for the month of April from 18 to 6.58 and Business Inventories (Feb) came in line with expectations at 0.6% and lower from the prior month of 0.8%.

Today from the US we will be looking out for Building Permits (Mar) and Housing Starts which are both due at 13:30 GMT, followed by Industrial Production (Mar) due at 14:15 GMT.

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