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

All in all Friday was a quiet day. UK GDP was the only major release on the calendar and although we thought a print below expectations was likely this failed to be the case. As a result GBP managed to hold strongly into the weekend against most of its trading partners, including EUR and USD.

News over the weekend was broadly dollar positive in the short term and negative in the long run but had little chance to impact given the US and UK bank holidays yesterday. News that the North Koreans tested another nuclear device equal in destructive power to that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima sent Asian markets scurrying yesterday with Japanese assets particularly hard hit. We would not be surprised, depending on any fall-out from the Security Council’s decision, to see risk edge back into asset classes today and see USD make some gains.

Data today will hopefully be supportive of the latest bullish trend with US consumer confidence expected to continue to increase.

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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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