Pound to Euro and US Dollar exchange rate: The Pound has picked up against the USD during trading this morning

March 23, 2012 RSS FEED No comments

Written by Hannah Wilson on March 23rd, 2012

Foreign Exchange Rates Currency News - The Pound rallied through 1.50 against the Australian Dollar yesterday Economic data today is light. Therefore movements today are likely to be impacted by stock market fluctuation, and possible risk sentiment.

Sterling / Euro and US Dollar exchange rates

The Pound has picked up against the US Dollar during trading this morning, testing the 1.5900 resistance level on interbank, and once again reaching a low of 1.1950 against the Euro.

UK retail sales data released yesterday morning resulted in an unexpected decline of 0.8%, against a previously forecasted 0.4% – raising concerns that the increase seen in consumer spending at the turn of the year is already beginning to lose momentum.

Data released overnight confirmed that UK consumer confidence also fell in February to a level nearly 30 points below its long-term average. This combined with worse than expected retail sales data is likely to increase speculation that the Bank of England could once again take measures to provide further support to the economy through its bond purchasing programme.

Q4 Irish GDP data suggested that the Irish economy contracted during the last 3-months of 2011. However, the 0.2% decline was not as much as initially forecasted.

PMI data released from the Euro-zone were disappointing, and saw the Euro fall sharply against the majors during early yesterday morning. The data fell short of market expectation to a low of 48.7 which suggests that some of the optimism that has been built up in the last couple of months may have been overrated.

Data released this morning confirmed that business confidence in France has increased for the second time in nine-months suggesting that growth is beginning to recover in the region.

It is a very light day in terms of economic data today, with US home sales data due to be released at 14:00.

Euro / US Dollar

The Euro initially opened lower against the USD this morning touching a low of 1.3189, but has since rebounded towards a high of 1.3292

Economic data today is light. Therefore movements today are likely to be impacted by stock market fluctuation, and possible risk sentiment.

There is support in the market at 1.3134 and resistance at Wednesday’s high of 1.3285.

Data Released Today

FRA 07:45 – Business Climate (March)

US 14:00 – New home sales (February)