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Asian equity markets have taken sterling higher overnight as financial shares led the charge in the first full trading session after the easter break.

Sterling had moved into the weekend with the wind at its back following the news that Wells Fargo, an American bank, is likely to post record profits for Q1. The correlation between financial services shares has helped overnight as Goldman Sachs announced a better results package than expected. This earnings season for US companies is likely to be one of the most volatile in living memory and will prove to be a significant bugbear for those assets the market believe to be risky; GBP included.

Most of the data, both corporate and economic, will be coming from the US this week. PPI and retail sales are due today, CPI inflation data tomorrow and housing starts and initial jobless claims on Thursday. Friday is the key earnings day however with results from Citibank and GE.

Please feel free to contact me (jeremy.cook@worldfirst.com) if you have any questions or thoughts regarding these updates or if you are interested in a particular event in the calendar. If you would like to discuss your foreign exchange requirements, please contact our: Corporate Foreign Exchange Team on 020 7801 9050 or our Private Client Currency Exchange Team on 020 7801 9080. Disclaimer: The above comments are only our views and should not be construed as advice. You should act using your own information and judgement. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute the author’s own judgement as of the date of the briefing and are subject to change without notice. Any rates given are “interbank” i.e. for amounts of £5million and thus are not indicative of rates offered by World First for smaller amounts. E&OE. Definitions of jargon/market terms can be found in our Glossary of Foreign Exchange Terms.

To view any past or present currency blogs please click on the following link www.worldfirst.com/blog

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