Forex Previews

Forex News – UK employment report positive, but unanimous MPC on rates’ hold hurts pound

Posted on January 21, 2015 at 3:12 pm GMT

Positive news that UK unemployment dropped to 5.8% in November compared to expectations of a drop only to 5.9% from 6% the preceding period. This was the lowest rate since July of 2008. In addition, during the month of December, the claimant count of registered unemployed fell by 29.7 thousand compared to a drop of 25 thousand that economists expected. Importantly, the measure of wages, average weekly earnings, was in line with expectations at 1.7% year-on-year increase. Excluding bonuses, average [..]

Forex News – Chinese growth slows down but with a silver lining

Posted on January 20, 2015 at 2:42 pm GMT

News that Chinese growth for the 4th quarter was at 7.3% year-on-year was a slight beat on expectations the economy would grow by 7.2%. For the year as a whole, China expanded by 7.4% versus a growth target of around 7.5% and the previous year’s 7.7% rate. Despite the relatively high figure in absolute terms, this rate is the slowest for China in the past 24 years and it is looking to fall lower still in 2015. Growth should be [..]

Forex News – ECB meeting preview: a QE program more complex than most

Posted on January 19, 2015 at 3:06 pm GMT

The most important event of the coming days will be the meeting of the European Central Bank on January 22 in Frankfurt. During this meeting, the unveiling of further stimulus to help the Eurozone economy is expected. Specifically, the ECB is expected to announce a quantitative easing program, which will involve the purchase of government bonds. This sounds straightforward enough as such programs have been used repeatedly in recent years in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom [..]

Forex News – Week Ahead: ECB looms large; UK employment and Eurozone Markit to be watched also

Posted on January 16, 2015 at 2:23 pm GMT

A crucial ECB meeting in Frankfurt, Markit Eurozone flash PMIs, UK employment and retail sales reports as well as Chinese growth and Japanese trade balance will likely prove to be the highlights of the coming week. Given the volatility unleashed by the Swiss National Bank, currency markets will likely remain volatile given such key risk events – particularly the euro. As already stated, the coming week will feature the all-important ECB meeting on Thursday, January 22. It will be the [..]

Forex News – UK inflation undershoots expectations; core pickup keeps sterling up

Posted on January 13, 2015 at 1:50 pm GMT

UK inflation for December came in lower-than-expected today at 0.5%, versus expectations of a slowdown to only 0.7%. The previous month of November, inflation was at 1%. This was the lowest inflation reading in the UK since 2000. However, core inflation, which excludes food, energy, alcohol and tobacco and is a better indicator of underlying inflation dynamics, actually increased to 1.3% from 1.2% the previous month. The pickup in core inflation was perhaps the reason that the pound actually rose [..]

Forex News – Week ahead: Inflation data next week for US, UK and Eurozone

Posted on January 9, 2015 at 1:49 pm GMT

The coming week will be relatively quiet in terms of important economic data, building up to the following week’s absolutely crucial risk events for the Eurozone; the ECB meeting and the Greek elections. Inflation data out of the UK and the US for December as well as final Eurozone consumer prices will likely prove to be the week’s highlight, combined with some speeches from Federal Reserve officials. The week will start off quietly on Monday, but then on Tuesday, UK [..]

Forex News – Greek elections on January 25 a major risk for the euro

Posted on January 6, 2015 at 11:03 am GMT

Following the failure to elect a new President of the Republic after three attempts (the final one was on December 29), the Greek parliament was dissolved and snap general elections were called for January 25. The current coalition government, which has agreed to abide by the country’s obligations in the memorandum of understanding with the Troika of international lenders, is on course to lose the upcoming elections. The potential winner of the elections is the SYRIZA far-left party, which has [..]

Forex News – Greece elections endanger bailout as anti-austerity party gains popularity

Posted on December 30, 2014 at 9:46 am GMT

Greece has been the focus of the markets ever since Monday when the nation’s parliament rejected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s nominee for president, resulting in a call for an early general election next month. Stavros Dimas fell short of the 180 votes needed to become president in the decisive third round of voting, triggering the dissolution of parliament and raised political uncertainty since one cannot know if the result of early elections will be a viable government. Greece could return [..]

Forex News – US GDP grows at fastest pace in 11 years in Q3

Posted on December 24, 2014 at 10:51 am GMT

US GDP grew at its fastest pace in 11 years during the third quarter, as the final revision to preliminary estimates raised it to a 5% annualized, seasonally adjusted rate from a previous 3.9%. Economists were expecting a growth rate of 4.3%. Importantly for the 16.2 trillion dollars economy, the final sales estimate of GDP which excludes the effect of inventories that can ‘borrow’ growth from future quarters, was the same as the headline growth rate at 5%. The economy [..]

Forex News – Sterling hurt by growing UK current account deficit and weak GDP

Posted on December 23, 2014 at 2:14 pm GMT

Sterling fell after data showed that UK third quarter GDP on an annual basis was revised lower in the final estimate to 2.6%. It was revised downwards by 0.4% from the previously published estimate of 3.0%. Meanwhile, quarter on quarter GDP growth figures came in line with expectations at 0.7% for the period July to September. This was a slowdown from a revised 0.8% between April and June. A fall in disposable incomes had an effect on growth figures as [..]

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