http://blog.currenciesdirect.net Foreign exchange and currency rates blog Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:55:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yesterday the Pound affirmed its status of being the current whipping-boy currency following the disappointing manufacturing and industrial production numbers yesterday morning. Given the much worse than expected trade figures from Tuesday, economic pundits had marked down their assumptions for yesterday’s data but the outcome proved even less palatable. Given ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/11/sterling-lifted-in-early-trading/ That is for sterling and the UK economy as Industrial production for January and manufacturing output came out much weaker than expected. Industrial output was -0.4% month on month and manufacturing output was -0.9%. Thus we have more negative feedback on top of yesterdays negatives to further reinforce the selling ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/10/and-the-hits-keep-on-coming/ The consolidation period for Sterling did not last too long and overnight in Asian trading and so far this morning it has been under selling pressure again. The reason for the fall today has again been attributed to narrowing polls showing that Labour and conservatives are "neck and neck". In ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/09/sterling-sold-off-again/ Sterling has started the week above 1.51 against the USD and over 1.10 against the euro as it looks to continue consolidating after suffering heavy losses last week. Sterling was cushioned by improvements in consumer confidence and UK PMI which showed gains in the UK service sector. The FTSE also ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/08/sterling-holds-firm/ Currencies Direct Chilli Charity Challenge Deepak Goyal brought the 'hottest sauce in the Universe' into the office and laid down a challenge - who could eat the most! Obviously, there was a charity angle to the proceedings as is always the case with Currencies Direct so the brave contenders all paid £3 ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/08/currencies-direct-chilli-challenge/ Yesterday it was announced that the BoE were keeping interest rates on hold at 0.5% and the asset purchase programme was held at £200 billion. The stronger PMI data this week and the improvement in the revision of Q4 2009 GDP has helped the MPC to be comfortable in their ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/05/no-surprises-from-the-boe/ The short month of February is over already and this month we went back to supporting 3 charities and showing our support via the gold coins! We raised a very healthy £219.15 in February which has pushed the co-operative wall total up to £4966 - almost at the £5k ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/04/february-donating-how-did-we-do/ Today, the MPC voted to leave their rates unchanged and in addition held QE at £200 billion. The improved PMI data yesterday and the up tick in the revised Q4 GDP to 0.3% helped to reinforce this stance. Personally, I would be very surprised to see any change in monetary ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/04/boe-hold-interest-rates-and-qe/ Not much movement overall yesterday on Sterling as the markets paused on selling the pound. This morning we have in fact made some gains back and as we stand we are holding just above the key 1.10 level and 1.50 on GBP/USD. The 1.50 level on GBP/USD is a crucial ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/03/sterling-consolidates-for-now/ After being sold aggressively across the markets yesterday the markets have taken a breather and we now await the next move. First let us dissect why the drop in sterling which fell over 2% against the USD pushing it to a 10 month low. Well the focus is political with ... http://blog.currenciesdirect.net/index.php/2010/03/02/can-sterling-pick-up-the-pieces/