Sterling remains buoyant into as the week draws to a close

-Spain sells €2.54bn of debt vs €2.5bn maximum target-Unemployment claims US 386K vs 370K-Philadelphia Fed index 8.5 vs 12.1-EU Consumer confidence -20 vs -19

BOE to the rescue

-UK MPC Minutes: 0-0-9-UK Unemployment Rate: 8.3% vs 8.4% expected-EUR Current Account: -1.3B vs 4.1B

Risk returns to market as focus turns to key UK data

-UK CPI: 2.5% vs 2.5% expected-German ZEW Economic Sentiment: 23.4 vs 19.7 expected-US Building Permits: 0.75m vs 0.71m expected-Bank of Canada interest rate meeting: 1% vs 1% expected

Spanish concerns continue to grow in tandem with their borrowing costs

The Dollar rallies as risk remains on the table.

The risk off move on Friday was largely due to the disappointing Chinese GDP and concern over Spain. However, markets continue to trade within its range as risk continues to loom as the next...

Markets reach a crossroads ahead of US CPI

Falling risk appetite broadly characterised the financial markets earlier in week. But yesterday we saw sharp retracements from the bearish moves seen on Tuesday and Wednesday. The US benchmark...

Euro-zone resumes front seat.

Just when we thought we had escaped the Euro-zone disaster, creaks are starting to return. Last week got the ball rolling with shocking PMI numbers across all of Europe. Unemployment printed its...

Forget Greece, it’s all about Spain.

The Euorozone debt crisis returned to the fore yesterday as markets punished Spanish and Italian equities and government debt. The sentiment stemmed from renewed concerns over Spanish debt and the...

Will the FX market suffer Bank Holiday blues?

Markets will return to normal trading conditions today following a long weekend of low liquidity. Despite thin trading and the release of the US Non-Farm Payroll figure on Friday the markets have...

Markets Expect Egg-cellent News Ahead of What Should Be A Cracking Weekend

As we move towards the Easter break and the inevitable gorging on chocolate eggs; markets have once again showed their overall ambiguity and uncertainty. Yesterday saw comments from ECB’s Mario...

Markets displeased as the Fed will not ease

Markets reacted negatively to yesterday’s release of the minutes from the March meeting of the US Federal Reserve. Markets interpreted that the Fed was unlikely to engage a policy of additional...

Jobs in the states while Europe still waits

Markets were lifted across the board yesterday as strong manufacturing figures were posted in the US. The US IMS manufacturing index climbed by 1 point – boosted by a particularly strong...

Risk returns as the focus moves back onto core data

Risk on has returned to the markets due to two main reasons. European finance ministers agreed to extend the rescue firewall, albeit by not as much as some may have liked - The full EUR500bn of the...

Sterling spikes to 4 month highs

The dollar has been extremely volatile in the last two trading sessions, with risk sentiment undulating wildly as we draw towards the end of Q1. Yesterday saw a dramatic sell off in stocks with the...

Temperatures soar but the market cools

The risk off tone continued as commodities & commodity currencies softened with many market commenters believing this is an extensive reaction to the Chinese profit data released on Tuesday....

Momentum fails to continue

In early trading yesterday the USD weakened further as the market continued to digest Ben Bernanke’s comments on Monday where he suggested that further QE from the FED may be on its way. The Euro...

Bernanke sends the Dollar tumbling

Markets will focus on data this week

Last week was very much range-bound as the market looked for direction for its next move. GBP-USD and EUR-USD finished the week strong, closing 30-40 pips from week-highs. The technical picture...

Will UK retail sales point to further QE?

Yesterday the UK was in focus with the release of the BoE’s MPC minutes and the Government’s Budget. Adam Posen and David Miles both voted for a further increase in asset purchases whilst the...

Markets await BoE minutes and Budget

The USD gained for the first time in 4 days as the risk off theme returned to the markets. Concerns over the economic performance in China alarmed the market as rumours surfaced suggesting that the...