Stronger Data Drives British Pound Higher

[DailyFx]

The British pound is stronger across the board today thanks to an improvement in the consumer confidence and increase in mortgage approvals. With the housing market holding steady, it is no surprise to see that households are less pessimistic about the outlook for the economy.

This week, we have a ton of additional housing market reports due for release including Hometrack house prices tonight and the HBOS PLC house prices tomorrow. Like the report released by building society Nationwide last week, both of these reports are expected to show improvements. In addition to the housing reports, we are also expecting manufacturing sector PMI and CBI Distributive Trades survey. These two numbers are the bigger market movers tomorrow as the market expects the strong British pound to put a damper on manufacturing sector activity.