Foreign Exchange - UK Daily Update - Written by jeremy on Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:05 - 0 Comments
Bank Shares Keep Sterling Under Pressure - World First’s Morning Update - 22nd January 2009
1985 was the year of the Heysel disaster, the Rainbow Warrior sinking and the release of Tetris. It was also the last time that GBP was this weak against the USD.
Sterling continued its volatile path downwards as bank shares were punished again on the FTSE 100. Barclays were one of the hardest hit as they came under intense pressure to release earnings figures early. Efforts to recapitalise banks on both sides of the Atlantic have left investors nervous. According to newspaper reports Alistair Darling is furious that the FSA allowed the ’short-selling’ ban on financial stocks to end 2 days before another round of bank funding. The lifting of the ban threw the banks to the wolves but not before someone had tied a juicy steak around their necks.
Data from the UK did not support sterling yesterday, nor was it really expected to. Unemployment is currently sitting at 1.92m, the highest since the Labour government came to power while the Bank of England’s MPC meeting minutes showed a not entirely unpredictable split. David Blanchflower, the perennial dove and the man whose assertions of a year ago have all started to come true, voted for a 1% cut. We still believe there is further slack in the rates and a 50bps cut in Feb is likely.
Data today is fairly light with US jobless claims at 13.30 the only tier 1 piece of data. Equity markets should be a driver with a spike seen late in US trading as bank directors increased stakes in their respective firms.
Thanks to all who have had a look at the World First Video Update so far in making it the 4th most viewed channel this week. See today’s update at http://uk.youtube.com/user/WorldFirstJC
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Indicative Rates |
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|
|
Sell |
Buy |
|
GBPEUR |
1.0639 |
1.0665 |
|
GBPUSD |
1.3844 |
1.3873 |
|
EURUSD |
1.3000 |
1.3025 |
|
GBPJPY |
123.59 |
124.31 |
|
GBPAUD |
2.1007 |
2.1043 |
|
GBPNZD |
2.6080 |
2.6161 |
|
GBPCAD |
1.7428 |
1.7531 |
|
NZDUSD |
0.5277 |
0.5344 |
|
GBPZAR |
13.86 |
13.92 |
|
USDZAR |
9.98 |
10.04 |
|
GBPPLN |
4.5765 |
4.6062 |
|
EURJPY |
115.92 |
116.24 |
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Rates are dependent on amount transacted |
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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.
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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.
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