Market News
USD weakness continued yesterday, consolidating only marginally overnight. EURUSD hit a high of 1.0615 yesterday afternoon (Bloomberg) and at the time of writing remains just shy of the 1.0600 level. GBP also saw a move higher vs. USD, helped by stronger UK data. GBPUSD broke through the 1.2400 handle before pulling back slightly overnight
- In Asia, the big mover was USDCNH, which broke below 6.8000 yesterday, moving nearly 2.9% lower over 2 days
Yesterday, UK PMI data surprised positively with services PMI coming in at 56.2 (consensus: 54.7) and composite PMI coming in at 56.7 (consensus: 55.0)
- However, focus remains on politics, capping potential GBP upside. Now that the new EU ambassador is in place, attention turns back to Article 50, with the media reporting that the speaker of the House of Lords has stated that peers will not stand in the way of the trigger (Telegraph)
Today markets will turn attention to the December US Non Farm Payrolls release at 13.30. Barclays Research expect a gain of 175k (Consensus: 175k)
- We would expect a beat of consensus to be USD positive, however, our traders question the importance of the data at this time of the year and before Trump’s inauguration
What to Watch Today?
This morning we look to euro area final consumer confidence index at 10.00 (Consensus: -6.0 m/m) alongside euro area Retail sales (Consensus: -0.4% m/m). The key focus will be on the US employment report at 13.30, with particular attention on nonfarm payrolls figure (Barclays Research: 175k, Consensus: 175k)
via Barclays
Today’s currency rates
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GBPUSD = 1.2385 |
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GBPEUR = 1.1696 |
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EURUSD = 1.0589 |
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GBPAUD = 1.6892 |
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EURGBP = 0.8550 |
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