Daily Foreign Exchange Market Update

Yesterday the Pound gained against the Euro and the US Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBPEUR rate opened at 1.2402 dropping during the first half of the day to a daily low of 1.2382 around midday. It then strengthened across the rest of the day before closing at a daily high of 1.2439. The GBPUSD rate opened at a daily low of 1.6091 and strengthened throughout the day to close out at a high of 1.6130. No data was released from the UK yesterday and the only result released today is the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) for October which came out lower then expected, at 47.5 compared to the analysts’ view of 48. PMI is an indicator of economic activity and roughly put, it reflects the percentage of purchasing managers in a certain sector that reported better of worse business conditions compared to the previous month, where a result over 50 shows and expansion and below 50, a contraction.

The Euro lost some ground against both the Pound and the US Dollar during yesterday’s market session with the EURUSD rate opening at 1.2975, peaking early morning to 1.3021 but then falling throughout the rest of the day to close out at a daily low of 1.2971 with the two main pieces of data coming from the Euro-zone yesterday were German retail sales and French consumer spending. German retail sales which show the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at retail level came out at 1.5%, much higher then the previous and expected results of 0.1% and 0.4% respectively. French consumer spending, which is the change in inflation-adjusted value of all goods expenditure by consumers, came out slightly lower then expected, 0.1% compared to 0.2% but much higher then the previous result of -0.8%. Today, there has been no data released from the Euro-zone.

The US Dollar weakened against the Pound but gained against the Euro yesterday of the back of no data being released. US consumer confidence for October has just been released and has come out higher at 72.2 from 68.4 and the ISM manufacturing has also come out slightly higher, 51.7 compared to 51.5.

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