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It was yet another big day for sterling yesterday as bullish news from the services sector combined with an increase in mortgage approvals saw GBP move to within 0.2% of the its high against EUR for the year while still extending its gains versus the USD.

The quarterly survey of the service sector conducted by the CBI reiterated the message we’ve heard from recent data cycles; the recession is still here but the rate of decline is slowing noticeably. The fact that the services sector is the largest employer in the UK carries particular weight with the market we would think.

Mortgage approvals in the UK also gave sterling a nice bump yesterday as they posted their slowest annual decline since August 2007, the month that the air started to come out of the property market’s balloon.

As for where sterling can go from now look out for a special report from me later this morning.

Euro is already under pressure this morning after German ILO unemployment rose to 7.7%, in line with analyst’s expectations. Sterling could be put under pressure this morning by the CBI distributive data survey after raw data undoes the work of yesterday’s good sentiment.

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Please feel free to contact me jeremy.cook@worldfirst.com(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 on 020 7801 9050 or ourPrivate Client Currency Exchange 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..

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