21/ 08/ 2016

The week ahead | Will Fed Chair Yellen leave the door open for September?

Tomorrow there won’t be any economic data releases in the markets, but the focus will be on the Jackson Hole Symposium starting at the end of this week. Last week’s FOMC minutes revealed a divide between Fed members on when and if action is to be taken this year at all, and subsequently the Greenback lost ground.

19/ 08/ 2016

Sterling appreciates after bullish retail sales

UK retail sales dominated yesterday’s price action. The weaker Pound, decent weather and the end of the Euro 2016 championships all helped to boost consumer spending in July. Retail sales posted a much better than expected 1.4% against forecasts of 0.1%, boosting the year-on-year to 5.9%. Sterling climbed about half a cent to a two-week high against the Greenback after the release of these figures.

18/ 08/ 2016

A divided Fed sees the Greenback slip

The Federal Reserve minutes dominated headlines yesterday, however before this release we had a raft of high tier post- Brexit UK labour data which dictated price action during the European session. The UK jobs market showed resilience yesterday as companies added 172k jobs in the second quarter and the unemployment rate held at 4.9%.

17/ 08/ 2016

UK inflation boosts Sterling

Sterling appreciated against its major counterparties throughout the day yesterday after a better than expected inflation figure hit the wires. The yearly CPI (Consumer Price Index) improved to 0.6% from 0.5% previously. The price of oil continued its rise in July helping to contribute to the slight uptick in UK CPI. Air fares also remained elevated due to the holiday high season and Euro 2016 football championships.