The support that the dollar garnered over the weekend from the Senate’s passing of the bill designed to halt the US mortgage problems all but evaporated yesterday. Oil prices moved higher on Monday as terrorist attacks in India and Turkey unnerved investors alongside rebel attacks in the Niger delta on 2 Shell owned pipelines although Shell refused to comment as to whether these had affected supply

Sterling was unable to really take advantage of the weakness however as figures from Hometrack signalled more woe for the UK housing market. According to the report house prices fell by 1.2% in June which further highlights the risks of a recession. It was able to gain some ground against the euro however as a poor consumer confidence survey from Germany weakened the single currency.

Looking ahead to today we foresee a potentially difficult time for sterling with the release of the Bank of England Mortgage Approvals due to show the credit crunch is still impacting the housing market. Consumer confidence from France may also hurt the euro akin to what was released from Germany yesterday.

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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.