Currency update - 26 March 2012
Mar 26th 2012, 7:22 am
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Currency update - 26 March 2012
Few data, little action
- Major currencies unchanged
- Re-run possible today
Good morning. Search Google for "Cameron in deep hole" and the first five results refer to James Cameron's multimillion-dollar journey to the bottom of the sea. Only then do you come to news of the cheaper – and arguably less exotic – journey that relatively well-heeled donors could make to David Cameron's dining room. Once there, they were assured by the erstwhile Tory party treasurer, they could tell the prime minister exactly how they wanted him to run the country. Investigative journalists have been unable to produce the price list attached to these cash-for-coq-au-vin junkets but that has not prevented speculation: Fifty grand could perhaps persuade the PM to wear only Boden attire; half a million and he might consider an official visit to Grimsby.
And that is probably not much less than changed hands in the foreign exchange market on Friday. A lovely sunny day with a weekend ahead and an almost total dearth of economic data will have encouraged more than the usual number of market participants to take the day off. They did not miss much. BBA mortgage approvals in February were fewer than expected at 33.1k. Headline Canadian inflation fell short of forecast at 2.6% while the core consumer price index – the measure most closely watched by the Bank of Canada – was higher than predicted at 2.3%. February's -1.6% fall in US new home sales was miles adrift from the +1.3% forecast by analysts but was of neither help nor hindrance to the US dollar.
And that was pretty much the story for the whole day. Nothing made much of a difference to anything. Ignoring the odd dozen or so ticks here and there, sterling, the US dollar, the euro and the yen are unchanged this morning from Friday's opening levels. The commodity dollars are a touch firmer but even the gains there amount to the equivalent of less than half a euro cent.
The prospects for today are hardly any more exciting. The IFO institute reports on German business confidence this morning and February's US pending home sales come out after lunch. A handful of central bankers have speaking engagements; two each from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank and one, this evening, from the Bank of England. Investors will be listening carefully for hints about the future path of quantitative easing. Anything unexpected could get currencies moving, otherwise be prepared for another dull day.
- Major currencies unchanged
- Re-run possible today
Good morning. Search Google for "Cameron in deep hole" and the first five results refer to James Cameron's multimillion-dollar journey to the bottom of the sea. Only then do you come to news of the cheaper – and arguably less exotic – journey that relatively well-heeled donors could make to David Cameron's dining room. Once there, they were assured by the erstwhile Tory party treasurer, they could tell the prime minister exactly how they wanted him to run the country. Investigative journalists have been unable to produce the price list attached to these cash-for-coq-au-vin junkets but that has not prevented speculation: Fifty grand could perhaps persuade the PM to wear only Boden attire; half a million and he might consider an official visit to Grimsby.
And that is probably not much less than changed hands in the foreign exchange market on Friday. A lovely sunny day with a weekend ahead and an almost total dearth of economic data will have encouraged more than the usual number of market participants to take the day off. They did not miss much. BBA mortgage approvals in February were fewer than expected at 33.1k. Headline Canadian inflation fell short of forecast at 2.6% while the core consumer price index – the measure most closely watched by the Bank of Canada – was higher than predicted at 2.3%. February's -1.6% fall in US new home sales was miles adrift from the +1.3% forecast by analysts but was of neither help nor hindrance to the US dollar.
And that was pretty much the story for the whole day. Nothing made much of a difference to anything. Ignoring the odd dozen or so ticks here and there, sterling, the US dollar, the euro and the yen are unchanged this morning from Friday's opening levels. The commodity dollars are a touch firmer but even the gains there amount to the equivalent of less than half a euro cent.
The prospects for today are hardly any more exciting. The IFO institute reports on German business confidence this morning and February's US pending home sales come out after lunch. A handful of central bankers have speaking engagements; two each from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank and one, this evening, from the Bank of England. Investors will be listening carefully for hints about the future path of quantitative easing. Anything unexpected could get currencies moving, otherwise be prepared for another dull day.
