By Simon Eastman
Last week saw the pound and euro trade in a small range, whilst sterling made gains against the USD.
The greenback lost ground following market manipulation to strengthen the Japanese yen, which saw the Fed and the Japanese finance minister buy yen & selling dollars, to buoy up the weakening yen, in a move to try and curb their floundering inflation. The idea also to help both economies by making imports cheaper for Japan, therefore increasing US exports to the country.
We saw the week end with further dollar weakness as non farm payrolls showed a decline in jobs of 23,000 in comparison to the expected creation of 80,000 new jobs. “The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 66,000, from +129,000 to +63,000, and the change for June was revised down by 37,000, from +57,000 to +20,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 103,000 lower than previously reported,” the Bureau for Labour Statistics noted in its press release.
This week we have a varied release of data to influence markets, with the main releases highlighted below:
Monday – EU Sentix investor confidence survey.
Tuesday – RBA interest rate decision, policy statement and press conference. US employment change and house sale change.
Wednesday – various EU inflation releases consumer prices, US consumer price index, US monthly budget statement
Thursday – UK GDP, industrial and manufacturing production, EU industrial production, US producer price index and a speech from Fed member Barkin.
Friday – speech by RBA governor Bullock, EU GDP, USD retail sales and Michigan consumer expectations and sentiment surveys, plus consumer inflation expectations for 1-year and 5-years.
Plenty to go on and a fair amount from the us which could affect the current strong cable buy rates. Keep in touch with your currency consultant here at A Place in the Sun Currency to let us help make your money go further.