Home » Currency Market Update 12/01/10

The Pound the financial-services sector claims it is more pessimistic than at any time in the past year on the outlook for business growth, according to the CBI.
"The small upturn in U.K. financial-services activity over the past few months is not expected to last as we enter 2010," Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser at Britain's biggest lobby group said in an e-mailed statement. "Firms see their business volumes falling back again, with no further improvement in profitability over the next three months." Meanwhile a mixed bag on the data front could see sterling under pressure.

The Dollar No U.S. industry has faster profit growth than banks and brokers, and no group is more hated by the general public. It is claimed that earnings at financial companies rose 120 percent in the fourth quarter, accounting for all of the income increase in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, and will triple by 2011, growing four times faster than the market.

The Euro European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, speaking on behalf of the world's central bankers, said financial institutions must improve their risk management after a crisis that pushed the global economy into its worst recession in more than six decades. "We have to get risk management very significantly improved by market participants and financial institutions," Trichet said at a briefing at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland yesterday.

IB rates at 9.15am
GBP-EURO 1.111
GBP-USD 1.609
GBP-AUD 1.738
EURO-USD 1.447

Data released 12th Jan
UK BRC Retail Sales Monitor (Total)
UK RICS Housing Survey
AU Housing Finance
JP Economy Watchers Survey
UK Visible Trade Balance, World
CA Merchandise trade
CA  House Price Index
US Trade Balance
AU Westpac Consumer Confidence