News gets little better for sterling as it continues to wear its ‘FX market punch bag’ label with a dishevelled embarrassment. The euro made significant gains against GBP with marked strengthening as US equity markets drew to a close with another all time low seen around the 1.15 levels. USD also broke lower towards 1.45 though retreated overnight.

USD and JPY crosses should weaken today as the second half of the G20 meeting begins in Washington DC and statements will be aimed at portraying a sense of calm and eliminating investor panic and risk aversion. It is unlikely, however, that any substantive policy initiatives will come from this meeting so we expect news flow to centre around joint statements, photo ops and how the French delegation still look fabulous even in the teeth of a recession.

And they likely are. After the German GDP release we expect to see that the Eurozone as a whole is now in a technical recession with any background data pointing to a dramatic slowdown in export figures due to the single currency’s continued dominance. Other data today includes retail sales and consumer confidence from the US which are both forecast to show lower results.

Have a great weekend.

 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:

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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.