Foreign Exchange Daily Market Update 27/03/12

The Pound gained against the US Dollar yesterday, but declined slightly against the Euro in the foreign exchange market. The GBP/EUR exchange rate picked up from 1.1965 at the morning’s open to trade in an open range from the day low of 1.1945 and the high of 1.1995, before trading back to 1.1956 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/USD exchange rate picked up from 1.5842 the high of the day to trade down to the day’s low of 1.5799 before trading up towards 1.5938 by the European market close. The Pound also gained against the Australian Dollar and fractionally against the New Zealand Dollar in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The GBP/NZD exchange rate picked up from 1.9413 at the morning’s open to trade up towards 1.9414 by the close of the UK business day. The GBP/AUD exchange rate opened up from 1.5172 and finished the session higher at 1.5158.

We had no significant economic data from the UK yesterday, however today we will look out for the 10:00 GMT CBI Reported Sales, where economists are expecting a decline from -3 to -5

The Euro gained against both the Pound the US Dollar in the currency exchange market yesterday. The EUR/USD exchange opened up at 1.3235 and traded in an uptrend towards the high of 1.3339, before trading back towards the 1.3327 level by the European market close.

Yesterday from the Euro-zone we had seen a slight increase in the German IFO Business Climate (Mar), where economists were expecting a decline from 109.7 to 109.6 and instead saw an increase at 109.8. Also Italian Consumer Confidence (Mar) came in much better than expected at 96.8 up from 94.4.

This morning we had the release of the German GfK Consumer Confidence Survey (APR) which came in slightly off the expected figure of 6.0 at 5.9. German Import Price Index also came in better than expected on the month-on-month figure at 1.0% vs. 0.9%, however overall Import Price Index was down from the prior month of 1.3%. Finally French Consumer Confidence Indicator came in much better than expected increasing from 82 to 87.

We have no further economic data from the Euro-zone today.

The US Dollar declined against the Pound and the Euro currencies yesterday. The decline was lead by further weakening of the US dollar, following an announcement by Fed’s Bernanke’s comment of another round of quantitative easing. On the economic data front we had a fairly mixed data releases from the US yesterday, with the release of Chicago Fed Nat Activity Index (Feb) declining from 0.33 to -0.09. Followed by Pending Home Sales increasing from 10.3% to 13.9% and Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity (Mar) declining from 17.8 to 10.8.

Today from the US we have the release of the S&P Case-Shiller Composite 20 city (Jan) due at 13:00 GMT and Consumer Confidence Index Due at 14:00 GMT where economists expect a decrease from 70.8 to 70. Also we have Fed’s Dudley due to speak in Washington today about the Euro-zone aid which is due at 14:00 GMT.

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