BRC Data Causes Strong GBP Early Tuesday
Tuesday, February 06, 2007 9:23:01 AM - When the British currency registered strong gains against greenback, euro and yen, it showed choppy trading during much of early Tuesday deals in New York. Uncertainty against the CHF came after an uptrend during the small morning hours and largely, GBPCHF remained higher for the session.
BRC retail sales data was released at the beginning of the session and is highly likely triggered sterling recently. U.K retail sales rose 3.1% on year on like-for-like basis in January, the British Retail Consortium said Tuesday. The three-month trend rate of growth improved to 2.1% from 1.9% recorded prior month.
GBPUSD rallied to 1.9706 by 8:20 am ET from 1.9588 quoted at 1:30 am today. As far as USD is concerned, Paulson’s testimony on Budget before the House and the Senate, slated for later this day would be major attractions for the traders. Speeches by Fed’s Moskow and Yellen scheduled for the day also will be focused by the traders, it is widely expected.
Gains to the euro early today came amid Euro-zone retail sales and German factory orders data- both for the month of December. Sterling showed strength to euro amid both the releases. EURGBP weakened from 0.6594 to 0.6577 during the session and lately entered a sideways movement.
Advance against the Japanese currency were however checked around 5:00 am when the pair was worth 236.96 and later it moved almost sideways. And, against the Swiss currency, after a brief trend upwards, GBP started bouncing around. GBPCHF bounced around between 2.4474 and 2.4506 largely during this session hitting the extremes of 2.4463 and 2.4512 some time on the way.
A quiet European session witnessed GBP finding its footing largely owing to the BRC data. Having very little in the way of leads from the US session ahead, market is likely focus on fundamentals f the coming days of week.