Sterling saw seven week highs versus the dollar yesterday at $1.5867 but has failed to hold this level given the general pick up in the USD overnight. This morning sees the release of the CBI distributive trades survey for September, which could show that plans for fiscal tightening are impacting in terms of UK High Street activity. Final Q2 GDP numbers are also due and are expected to confirm the previous growth estimate of 1.2% over the quarter. Markets, however, are more concerned with the outlook for the current quarter, …

Central Bank leaders elected to leave interest rates alone following their monetary policy meeting on Tuesday (September 21). The move extended weakness in the dollar and helped push the euro and pound higher.

Price activity in the Forex market yesterday and overnight was rather volatile with Sterling falling to a seven week low of Stg 0.8402 versus the Euro following the release of UK Retails sales data for August. Figures released failed to meet analysts expectations with a figure of -0.5% against a projected +0.3% which saw a strong reaction in the FX markets as many buyers were caught offside with a net increase of “Short” positions following the release. The data released was a strong signal that UK consumers may be reining …

The euro traded as high as $1.3038 earlier Wednesday (September 15) and currently sits at $1.3011 after upbeat US data this week has cause some speculators to move away from the dollar and into more high risk investments.

Currency Overview
Euro is the outperformer overnight after Equity markets close positive and European peripheral spreads improve
Light profit taking on AUD & NZD as technical indicators point to oversold levels.
Sterling actively down against mopst major counterparts as RICS house Price data declines to worst level sicne May 2009.
The euro posted its biggest one day gain versus the dollar in two months yesterday as strong Chinese economic data boosted confidence, encouraging investors to move back into riskier currencies. Risk in FX has given back some of it’s gains from yesterday’s session. The …

Sterling continues to recover from recent lows versus the euro, aided by euro zone sovereign risk issues, as well as July’s UK industrial production report which showed reasonable growth. Versus the dollar, sterling recovered some of its losses yesterday before coming under fresh selling pressure late in the day. In a report released yesterday, the NIESR estimates that the UK economy grew by 0.7% in the three months to August, down from 1.3% in the three months to July. The Bank of England will be the focus of attention today …

The euro has dropped sharply in the last 36 hours after new data showed risky debt held by European banks could be a bigger problem than was previously indicated.