Today sees the release of US Q4 GDP, personal consumption and GDP figures in the US. These figures are key to traders looking for insight into how the US economy has performed on the open of this year.
We can expect the market to react fiercely to the news if anything other than what is expected is released. We could potentially see another break of 1.60 on bad news yet the market is expecting the stream of positive news to continue betting on the Dollar in opening trade this morning. …

Last Night Federal Reserve’s policy announcement illustrated a dovish tone pushing the US Dollar onto the back foot today versus the majority of the world’s most actively traded currencies. The FOMC acknowledged that the US economic recovery is gaining momentum with growth in household and investment spending steadily increasing.

Sterling dipped dramatically overnight against both the Euro and the US Dollar. GBP/EUR is trading at a yearly low of 1.1532 and GBP/USD is up slightly off the low at 1.58. This move follows yesterday’s largely unexpected decline in Gross Domestic Product in the UK. The headline figure released by the office for national statistics showed that the economy contracted 0.5% in the final quarter of 2009, markets had been anticipating growth of 0.4.
Markets do not seem to have accepted the explanation that the appalling GDP figure is simply …

The Euro has gained considerably in the last week as speculators confidence gains on news that sovereign debt problems seem to be subsiding. The Euro is also being fundamentally supported on inflation concerns in the Eurozone.

Strong earnings and prices this week from some powerful companies have bolstered optimism in an economic recovery.
Friday (January 21) morning, General Electric said its fourth-quarter net income was $4.5 billion (compared to $3 billion in the same quarter last year), which amounts to $.42 per share (compared to $.28 cents in the same quarter).
These signs of stability have contributed to lower commodities prices to close out the week.
After spending much of the last two weeks above $90 per barrel, light sweet crude futures currently trade at $89.57 per barrel …

Yesterday employment figures showed that overall employment fell 0.3% with a loss of 69,000 jobs. Jobless Claims fell 4.1k in December after falling 3.2k in November, the lowest level for 21 months. The claimant count (4.5%) and ILO unemployment rate ( 7.9%), remained unchanged.
The expectations for the labour market this year are poor with private sector job creation expected to come under pressure with the severe austerity measures set in place to reduce the UK budget deficit. Austerity measures always impact on growth meaning ultimately less trade for the …