Daily Foreign Exchange Market Update

Yesterday the Pound strengthened against the Euro and the US Dollar in the foreign exchange market. The GBPEUR rate opened the day at 1.2466, gaining strength over the first few hours of trading, peaking to a daily high of 1.2494 mid-morning. Throughout the rest of the day it then lost strength, dropping to a daily low of 1.2441 early afternoon, closing slightly higher at 1.2474. The GBPUSD rate opened down at a daily low of 1.6131, it then gained ground and peaked at midday to a rate of 1.6175 but then slipped across the rest of the day to close out at 1.6136. It was a quiet day for data release in the UK with the most significant piece being Nationwide house prices year on year for October showing the change in selling price of homes with mortgages backed by Nationwide and is the leading indicator of the housing industry’s growth because rising house prices attract investors and spur industry activity. Today will see Construction PMI being released, a leading indicator of economic health as it reacts quickly to market conditions. It came out this morning at 50.9, above the level of 50 which shows an expansion in the construction industry.

The Euro lost ground against the Pound but strengthened against the US Dollar in yesterday’s market session. The EURUSD rate opened the day at 1.2939, falling sharply to a daily low of 1.2924 early morning, before quickly gaining back the strength and peaking to 1.2983 at midday, closing the day lower at 1.2935. The main piece of information coming from the Euro-zone yesterday was Ireland’s unemployment rate for October which stayed at 14.8%, a much higher result then the rate of 4.5% seen pre-banking crisis in June 2007. Today has seen Euro-zone PMI for manufacturing come out with the result only slightly better then the previous result, 45.4 compared to 45.3 last month, still below the headline figure of 50.

The US Dollar weakened against the Pound and the Euro in the foreign exchange market yesterday. This came off the back of consumer confidence and ISM Manufacturing results that were better than expected. Today will be a big day for the US economy with jobs reports coming out later today. The unemployment rate is set to slightly increase from 7.8% to 7.9% and the change in non-farm payrolls which is actually set to rise from 114K to 125K.

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