Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 07/03/12

The Pound declined against the US Dollar and against the Euro in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1994 at the morning’s open to trade in a range of 1.1973 and 1.2019, before trading back to 1.1981 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5824 to trade down to the day’s low of 1.5710 before trading back to 1.5720 by the European market close. The Pound also finished lower against the New Zealand Dollar, but however finished higher against the Australian Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9382 at the morning’s open to trade down towards 1.9375 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4899 and finished the session slightly higher at 1.4904.

Yesterday from the UK we had the Halifax House Price month –on-month for February came in worse than expected at -0.5% vs. 0.3% expected by economists and down from 0.6% from the prior month. We have no further data from the UK today.

The Euro gained against the Pound, but declined against the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3191 to trade down to the day low of 1.3110 before closing out at 1.3119 by the European market close. Yesterday we had the Euro-zone Gross Domestic Product figures come out in line with expectations, with the year-on-year number unchanged at 0.7% and quarter-on-quarter at -0.3%.

This morning we will look out for the 11:00 GMT German Factory Orders n.s.a. (Jan) year-on-year, which is expected to decline from 0.0% to -1.7% and the month-on-month figure expected to decline from 1.7% to 0.6%.

The US Dollar gained against the Pound and against the Euro currencies yesterday. The dollar strength was led by worries over global growth and delays in the Greek debt deal. There was no significant data released from the US yesterday, however US Redbook month-on-month data came in better than expected posting a +0.1% gain in retail sales from the prior month.

Today we have a fair bit of data from the US with MBA Mortgage Applications (Mar 2) due at 12:00 GMT, followed by 13:15 GMT ADP Employment Change which is expected to rise from170k to 210k. Later after the UK trading session we will look out for the US Consumer Credit (Jan) due at 20:00 GMT, were economists are expecting a decline from $19,308bln to $12,000bln.

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