GBP Weakness Persists, USD Gains Expected, AUD Steady

Published: 14 Nov at 11 AM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, UK, Eurozone, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,

Pound Sterling
Pound weakness persisted on Friday as a below-forecast UK Construction Output report added to the British currency’s woes. Construction output increased by 1.8% on the month in September, far short of the 4.0% rebound economists had anticipated. If next week’s UK reports, including the nation’s retail sales figures, support the argument that the UK recovery is slowing, the Pound could fall to fresh lows against peers like the Euro and US Dollar.

US Dollar
Ahead of the release of US Advance Retail Sales data, the US Dollar was trending in a stronger position against the Pound and Euro. If sales are shown to have increased as forecast, the ‘Greenback’ could post further gains. The US University of Michigan Confidence index will also be of interest to investors.

Euro
The common currency put on a mixed performance on Friday in spite of some positive growth figures for the Eurozone and its largest economies. Italy may have remained in contraction territory in the third quarter but both the French and German economies expanded by more than economists had anticipated. The Eurozone as a whole was shown to have grown by 0.2% in the third quarter, beating estimates for growth of 0.1%. However, the currency bloc’s Consumer Price Index left the Euro little changed against the US Dollar and Pound.

Australian Dollar
Despite a lack of Australian data, the ‘Aussie’ was able to rally against several of its rivals during the local session. The Australian Dollar recovered losses against both the Pound and US Dollar as investors looked ahead to next week and the release of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest policy meeting minutes.

New Zealand Dollar
‘Kiwi’ movement has been fairly limited this week due to a lack of notable economic reports for New Zealand. The commodity-driven currency is more likely to experience volatility next week as domestic Performance of Services and retail sales figures are published.

Canadian Dollar
Prior to the release of Canadian Manufacturing Shipments figures, the Canadian Dollar was trading in a stronger position against the Pound and was little-changed against the US Dollar. Yesterday’s domestic New Housing Price Index came in below forecast but had little long-term impact on ‘Loonie’ demand.
As of Friday, 14th November 2014, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.2511, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.5671, GBP AUD exchange rate was 1.7912, GBP NZD exchange rate was 1.9814, and GBP CAD exchange rate was 1.7686.

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