The dollar enjoyed a good day on Friday as hawkish noises from the Fed emphasised their anti-inflationary desires. Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, said that interest rates would be raised ‘sooner rather than later’ if inflation beliefs worsened.

The euro continued to weaken against the dollar and pound on Friday despite very poor UK consumer confidence data. Releases from the Eurozone were also poor as fears grow over the state of the economy; German retail sales fell unexpectedly with HICP, the main European inflation measure, moving to 3.6% from last month’s figure of 3.3%.

Sterling has taken a knock this morning due to, we believe, the news of investment into the Bradford & Bingley building society. An investor group is set
to pump £179m into the company to shore it up in the face of falling profits. Bradford and Bingley is the 8th largest bank in the UK and the largest lender of buy to let mortgages.

Today’s Data
EU: 09.00 Manufacturing PMI
Expected: 50.5
Previous: 50.5
UK: 09.30 Manufacturing PMI
Expected: 51.0
Previous: 50.5
US: 15.00 ISM Manufacturing
Expected: 48.6
Previous: 48.5
Indicative Rates
Sell Buy
GBPEUR 1.2670 1.2700
GBPUSD 1.9690 1.9714
EURUSD 1.5518 1.5540
GBPJPY 206.21 208.30
GBPAUD 2.0670 2.0720
GBPNZD 2.5105 2.5180
GBPCAD 1.9577 1.9630
GBPZAR 15.03 15.09
USDZAR 7.63 7.66
GBPPLN 4.2684 4.2943
Rates are dependent on amount transacted
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Email: (jeremy.cook@worldfirst.com) Please feel free to contact me at anytime regarding these briefings, if you have any questions or thoughts on them, or if you are interested in a particular event in the calendar.Please call us on 0800 783 6022 / +44 20 7801 9080 if you would like to discuss the markets or fix a rate.

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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 authors own judgement as of the date of the briefing and are subject to change without notice.

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