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The good ship GBP continued to creak yesterday with falls seen against the EUR and USD over the course of the trading session.

Risk appetite is still fairly good relative to the past 4 months; commodity currencies (AUD, NZD, ZAR) have all been performing strongly while stock markets are continuing to turn in days in the green.

GBP was undermined however by the High St yesterday. Retail sales came out at -1.9% against an expectation of -0.4%; we thought they would be poor but not as poor as -1.9%. Needless to say the High St is still sailing into the teeth of this storm. GBP may have also been marked down on Secretary Geithner’s plan for increased regulation in the financial sector plus the continuing differences between Gordon Brown and Mervyn King will not have helped.

The waters are not set to get much calmer today either with the release of UK GDP later and Michigan Consumer Confidence.

Have a good 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: 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.