httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ymV6Z_mqEY

·         Conservative party leads slips to 2 points

·         Labour now thought to be better guardians of the economy.

·         US GDP hits 5.9%

·         EU to devise plan to guarantee Greek debt.

All this and more is available on our blog. Click here  http://www.worldfirst.com/blog

Today we have published our ‘World First Economic Calendar’ (attached to this email). This calendar seamlessly fits into your existing Outlook calendar and details the important releases for upcoming week.) This does however not work in Outlook 2003 or on a Mac however development is going into releasing calendars in those formats. Simply open the attachment (selecting replace if you downloaded last week’s)

Friday was yet again another tough day for the pound; last week will be one holders of sterling wouldn’t mind forgetting.

Although UK GDP returned a higher result than forecast (0.3% vs 0.2%) downward revisions to the previous quarter and 2009 as a whole meant that the original picture was a lot bleaker than thought before. The market did not look favourably on the fact that a decent amount of that GDP figure was fed by government spending as opposed to consumer spending.

Opinion polls taken before the GDP announcement had the Tories maintaining a 5/6 point lead; afterwards, according to one poll, this had fallen to just two. One component part of the survey was that the general public now trust Labour more with the reins governing the economy than the Conservatives. This also means that, going by the ‘First Past the Post’ system we operate in the UK, Gordon Brown and Labour would be returned to power. This will come as a blow to David Cameron, and the pound.

US data also surprised to the upside on Friday as GDP came out at 5.9% against an expectation of 5.7%.

Both GDP figures allowed risky assets to extend during Friday’s trade with the euro making gains on a trade weighted index basis.

Something that will also strengthen the single currency has been reported on heavily in the FT and WSJ over the weekend. According to some, France and Germany may be willing to act as guarantors on Greek debt. Of course, any deal is right in the embryonic stages at the moment and a lot of political to-ing and fro-ing will need to be done before a deal is actually struck. As it stands at the moment however it is a euro positive.

Busy day of data today with PMIs and ISMs from manufacturing sectors around the world (EU 09.00, UK 09.30, US 15.00) and US inflation at 13.30. Further weakness from the pound will be expected.