All this and more is available on our video blog at http://uk.youtube.com/user/WorldFirstJC

A black dog stalks markets today. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself’; I wonder if he would be so pithy in the current conditions. 

The dire state of the UK economy was brought into sharp focus yesterday on 2 measures. UK sovereign debt is sold into the markets on a regular basis and the money received forms a large part of what the government will spend on things such as the NHS, schools, defence, London 2012 and bailing banks out. Normally these instruments are massively oversubscribed to the tune of 4 or 5 times, yesterday however this was not the case and only 93% of the allocation was bid for. Such an apparent lack of confidence in our country is frightening and sterling has held up well given the circumstances.

The other piece of data will hopefully bring home just how big a hole we are in. Ready? It is forecast that this current government will hand down more debt to its successor than the total amount borrowed by successive monarchs and governments between 1691 and 1997. 306 years of borrowing matched in 142 months.

Sterling was, as I said, lucky to hold onto the majority of gains it has made recently against the dollar as the US too had a poor debt auction; a balance of negativity if I may.

German IFO was slightly lower yesterday and normally we would see the euro weaken as a result, however the pull of the debt auction undermined this.

Data today includes UK retail sales which are set to fall back into negative territory after the shock higher in February while jobs data from the UK should show around 645,000 filing for benefits in the US.

All this and more is available on our video blog at 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.