Tuesday’s trading saw the data releases start to gather momentum with a few announcements to reflect on. The best performer yesterday was the British Pound as it rallied further following the latest Manufacturing PMI figures that were better than expected at 57.5 compared to the forecast 56.8. Sterling made gains across the board, recovering recent losses against the Euro and pushing on to new year highs against the US Dollar.
GBP/EUR rates improved for buyers despite some positive data for the Euro that showed that the headline unemployment rate for the Euro-zone as a whole had remained at 11.6% when analysts were pricing in an increase to 11.7%.
GBP/USD has seen the most interesting movement recently having broken key resistance levels, buying exchange rates are now the best that they have been since October 2008. The pound’s gains against the greenback were helped after some slightly weaker US data. ISM manufacturing PMI came in at 55.3, still a growth figure but not a strong as the 55.8 consensus.
Today sees a string of further data for the 3 majors. UK construction PMI begins the day at 9:30am, with Euro-zone GDP at 10:00am. Later this afternoon the FED Chairman Janet Yellen will be giving a speech at 4pm GMT. To discuss the potential impact of any of these announcement please contact your broker directly.