The dollar’s relentless march continued overnight against its major crosses as global bull sentiment flooded behind the greenback; The US economy is by no means in great shape however relative to expectations we’re seeing a recovery.

It looked like the steam had run out of the move midway through yesterday’s trading with oil prices reversing higher as rhetoric in Georgia intensified and speculators took a breather and sat on profits.  Gold, platinum and silver markets all took a dive yesterday allowing sterling a respite against commodity currencies in the short term.

Today is another key day fro UK data with the release of the CPI figure for the month of July. June’s was 3.8% and analysts are looking for somewhere between 4.1% and 4.3%, a monster figure by all accounts. This will be compounded by the release of yesterday’s Producer Output Prices which confirmed that goods leaving the factory gate are 10.2% more expensive than this time last year; a record since 1986.

We also have news from the housing market today as the Department of Councils and Local Government is expected to announce that house prices have once again fallen close to levels seen in recessionary periods. This is hot on the heels on last night’s RICS report that the average estate agent is only selling around 5 houses a month. The figure in 1992, the benchmark for the most recent troubles, was 6 a month.

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 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.