April, 2011
Foreign Exchange - UK Daily Update - Thursday, April 28, 2011 7:54 - 0 Comments
World First Morning Update 28th April 2011: Stagnant UK But Cable Flies On Bernanke
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2BvV3PHQDI
It’s growth Jim but not as we know it. The 0.5% increase in Q1 GDP makes up for the poor 4th quarter but to all intents and purposes means that the UK has not grown an iota in the past 6 months. Yesterday’s figure showed us bounce backs in transport since the destruction caused by the winter snow while services and manufacturing and services have remained buoyant. The main laggard has been construction, a historically volatile series, although mortgage approvals published at the same time as today’s GDP release show that they have risen for the 3rd month in a row.
Sterling rallied sharply after the announcement as it seemed that traders were betting heavily on a below consensus number and were caught out. We believe that this does little to change market perceptions on interest rate rises for the UK economy and we therefore keep our prediction for an August hike.
The other main headline in markets yesterday was the press conference given by the Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke. No clues were given as to when the Fed will commence with monetary tightening, arguing that they remain focused on the recovery and wish to see the jobs market show signs of improvement. On growth he said he expected Q1 GDP to be a “relatively weak number,” probably less than 2% but the pace of recovery to pick up through 2011, ’12 and ’13.The dollar sank across the board as he spoke as we had expected moving above the 1.67 mark against sterling and the 1.48 mark in EURUSD terms. US GDP is released at 13.30.
Ben Bernanke has given the green light for further gains on equity markets with his ‘risk on’ speech sending the American markets up before their close last night. Asia and Europe have followed this morning and commodity prices have continued as well with gold hitting $1533 an ounce,
Latest exchange rates at time of writing
| Indicative Rates | Sell | Buy |
| GBPEUR | 1.1222 | 1.1249 |
| GBPUSD | 1.6654 | 1.6698 |
| EURUSD | 1.4840 | 1.4862 |
| GBPJPY | 136.12 | 136.39 |
| GBPAUD | 1.5242 | 1.5269 |
| GBPNZD | 2.0681 | 2.0712 |
| GBPCAD | 1.5800 | 1.5829 |
| NZDUSD | 0.8052 | 0.8074 |
| GBPZAR | 10.96 | 11.01 |
| USDZAR | 6.5697 | 6.5994 |
| GBPPLN | 4.4054 | 4.4321 |
| EURJPY | 121.09 | 121.35 |
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Rates are dependent on amount transacted. Please call 020 7801 9080 for a live rate quote |
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- World First in the press: The Telegraph 27 April 2011
- World First Morning Update 27th April 2011: GDP To Set The Scene For GBP
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- World First Morning Update 26th April 2011: Market Set For A Short Busy Week
- World First Morning Update 21st April 2011: Risk Rally Pushes Dollar Lower
- World First Morning Update 20th April 2011: BoE Minutes this morning
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- World First Sterling Update 18th April 2011: In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it
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- World First Morning Update 15th April 2011: EU and US CPI released today
- World First Morning Update 14th April 2011: Obama Announces Deficit Plan
- World First on the news: BBC News 12 April 2011
- World First in the press: The Sunday Times 10 April 2011
- World First Morning Update 12th April 2011: Japan Disaster Upgraded, IMF Signal Growth
- World First Sterling Update 11th April 2011: One report to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
- World First in the press: The Jewish Chronicle
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- World First on the BBC: ECB raise interest rates
- World First Morning Update 8th April 2011: ECB Puts Its Cards On The Table
- World First on the news: ITN 6 and 7 April 2011
- World First Morning Update 7th April 2011: ECB Looks To Increasing Rates As Portugal Asks For Aid
- World First in the press: The Daily Mail 6 April 2011
- World First in the press: The Telegraph 6 April 2011
- World First Morning Update 6th April 2011: Pound Finally Bounces Back
- World First Morning Update 5th April 2011: Construction data provides some investor reassurance
- World First Sterling Update 4th April 2011: Interested in a rate rise?
- World First Morning Update 4th April 2011: US Jobs Grow But FOMC Remains Split
- World First Morning Update 1st April 2011:Irish Banks need to raise 24 billion Euros in extra credit
