Both the Bank of England and the ECB elected to cut rates by 50bps yesterday and both published comments alongside their decisions commenting on the dire state of their respective economies. The Treasury also gave permission for ‘quantative easing’ to the tune of £150 billion with the Bank of England saying they would use half that figure immediately. The plan is to, over the coming 3 months, buy up huge amounts of government and corporate debt from the high street banks, reinvigorate their balance sheets and stimulate lending.

The ECB were fairly downcast in their appraisal of things and the euro has started to tremble with our forecasts seeing GBP/EUR higher in the near future.

Today is of course the day of Non-Farm Payrolls, the wolf of the data calendar; looks dangerous, is dangerous and will rip your throat out if it gets a chance. The unemployment rate is set to rise to 7.9%, a 25 year high while the payrolls could show a fall of 600k. The morning’s trade may be fairly quiet as participants wait for the announcement and a clue of how to position themselves.

Further analysis is of course always available at our video blog http://uk.youtube.com/user/WorldFirstJC

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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