All Entries Tagged With: "$GBPUSD"
UK Inflation to Remain Above Target Through 2012
The Bank of England has released its May Inflation Report and predicted that UK inflation is very likely to remain above the 2% target throughout 2012. Forex traders took that as a sign that the bank would have to tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates, and the British pound got a little bump from [...]
Dollar Outlook Continues Bearish
If there are any remaining dollar bulls out there, they seem lonelier than the Maytag repairman featured years ago in TV ads. Following the US Federal Reserve Bank’s latest decision to maintain its loose monetary policy and to let the QE2 program run to its scheduled June ending, the greenback has dipped again to less [...]
ECB Rate Hike, Portuguese Bailout Stymie Markets
Proving once again that all of the people can be right some of the time, the European Central Bank raised its headline interest rate from 1% to 1.25% on Thursday. Because the increase was so widely anticipated, forex markets responded rather quietly. There were no significant changes in the EURUSD or the GBPUSD, while the [...]
British Rate Hike Gets Boost from PMI Report
Britain’s purchasing managers index (PMI) for services in March rose to its highest level since the summer of 2007, raising hopes for an interest rate hike from the Bank of England on April 7th. The index rose from 52.6 in February to 57.1 in March. A figure above 50 indicates growth. A report in the [...]
Dollar Bounces Before Gravity Takes Over
The March 2011 report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics noted a gain in US non-farm payrolls of 216,000 for the month, and a headline unemployment rate of 8.8%. The numbers exceeded expectations, and put a charge into the US dollar on Friday, pushing the EURUSD down to less than 1.41 and the USDJPY [...]
Mixed Signals in the Currency Markets
Comments by the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank have given the dollar a push higher, while reports on consumer confidence and housing prices have weighed the greenback down. The British pound has weakened against the dollar as prospects for an interest rate hike have dimmed, consumer confidence has fallen, and now the [...]
Rate Hike at Bank of England May Be Delayed
The Bank of England has released the minutes of its March meeting, revealing that by a vote of 6-3 the monetary policy committee favored keeping the bank’s benchmark interest rate at 0.5%. The margin disguises a four-way split among committee members, with one member voting to lower the rate, five voting to keep the rate [...]
UK Inflation Raises Odds for Interest Rate Hike
The UK posted an annualized inflation rate in February of 4.4%, some 240 basis points above the target 2% set by the Bank of England. The jump is attributed to rising fuel costs, housing costs, and clothing. Rising inflation numbers have set tongues to wagging again about the possibility of an immediate interest rate hike [...]
EU Gives a Little, Demands a Lot
The European Union has decided to increase its emergency bailout fund from €440 billion to €500 billion, but stopped short of allowing the European Central Bank to conduct open market sales of so-called “euro-bonds”, deciding instead to allow the fund to buy sovereign bonds under certain conditions, but not to allow the debtor nations to buy them [...]
Greek Debt Downgrade Weighs on Euro
Rapidly rising prices for crude oil have weighed more heavily on the US dollar than on either the euro or the pound, or even the yen. Part of the reason for the falling greenback is that the US consumes so much oil, about 18.8 million barrels a day. Another reason for the weaker dollar is [...]
