US Dollar (USD) Advances On Peers Due To Retail Sales Speculation

Published: 12 Aug at 4 PM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, UK, Eurozone, Australian Dollar, Australia, USA, India, Russia,

With UK mortgage approvals improving in June and tomorrow’s home price data expected to show prices at a three year high, the Pound advanced on the Euro.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders the number of UK home loans was up 15.7 per cent in June from a year earlier.

Sterling strengthened to 85.86 pence per Euro. The British currency also recorded gains against the majority of its other most traded peers as the European session progressed.

After spending most of last week trapped in a bearish relationship with its currency peers, the US Dollar was able to post widespread gains ahead of the publication of domestic retail sales data. It is expected that US retail sales advanced for a fourth consecutive month. If in line with forecasts, the report will add to the case for the Federal Reserve tapering stimulus in the months ahead.

As forex strategist Charles St-Arnaud observed: ‘A better-than-expected retail-sales number would suggest that the US economy is healthy, and could reignite expectations of tapering happening in September. We had a fairly weak US Dollar over the past week, so some of the strength could just be repositioning and profit taking.’

The ‘Greenback’ strengthened to 1.3281 Dollars against the Euro.

Meanwhile, India’s Rupee softened after data showed that industrial production in the nation slumped by 1.1 per cent in June and US easing speculation lessened the appeal of emerging-market currencies.

The Russian Ruble also dipped against Bank Rossii’s target basket of currencies for the first time in three days, weakening to 37.8485.
As of Monday, 12th August 2013, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.1626, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.5454, GBP AUD exchange rate was 1.6935, GBP INR exchange rate was 94.4192, and GBP RUB exchange rate was 50.9491.

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