Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 14/03/12

Yesterday the pound gained against the US Dollar and against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1918 at the morning’s open to trade in a uptrend towards the high of 1.2010 before trading back to 1.1992 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5648 to trade up to the day’s low of 1.5619 before trading higher towards 1.5724 by the European market close. The Pound also gained against the Australian Dollar and against the New Zealand Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9060 at the morning’s open to trade up towards 1.9134 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.4871 and finished the session higher at 1.4922.

Yesterday we had the Visible Trade Balance from the UK, which came in better than expected at -£7532 vs. -£79000, however was worse than the previous figure of -£7184.

This morning we have some key data from the UK today with the Jobless Claims Change and Unemployment Rate both due at 09:30 GMT. The Jobless Claims Change figure is expected to decline from 6.9k to 5.0k and Unemployment Rate is expected to be unchanged at 8.4% by economists.

The Euro declined against both the Pound and the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3130 to trade down to the day low of 1.3052 before closing out at 1.3111 by the European market close. Yesterday morning we had seen the release of the French Consumer Price Index (Feb) year-on-year which came in line with expectations at 2.3% and the month-on-month figure came in at -0.4%, both unchanged from the prior month. German Zew Survey for the month of March came in much better than expected at 22.3 vs. 5.4 from the prior month.

Today we will look out for the Euro-zone Consumer Price Index due at 10:00 GMT, we are expected an increase from 2.6% to 2.7% for the year-on-year.

The US Dollar declined against the Pound, but gained against the Euro currencies yesterday. We had a fair amount of data scheduled from the US yesterday, with the release of Advance Retail Sales (FEB), which came in line with expectations at 1.1% and up from 0.6% from the prior month. Then we were followed by better than expected Business Inventories, which came in at 0.7% vs. 0.5% expected by economists.

Today from the US we will be looking out for the MBA Mortgage Applications (Mar 9) due at 11:00 GMT and the US Current Account Balance (Q4) due at 12:30 GMT.

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