Sterling remains the party pooper Halo Financial Christmas party passes without major casualties
Friday, 21 December 2007
Today's Highlights
Sterling remains the party pooper Halo Financial Christmas party passes without major casualties
FX Market Overview
The Halo Financial Christmas party took place last night; I counted them out and I counted them back in and everyone returned relatively intact. I won’t go into too much detail but suffice to say there were trapeze artists, fire swallowing and a ‘mankini’ -a la Borat -involved; I shall say no more than that but I am typing with veeeeery soft keystrokes though to save the sore heads of those around me.
Nevertheless, we discovered when we arrived this morning that the foreign exchange market is still here and Sterling is still the pariah of the markets. The reasons are the same as they were yesterday if anyone can remember what they were - UK interest rates heading lower, UK housing market slowing and less interest in higher yielding currencies from the international ‘carry traders’.
The lack of UK data yesterday didn’t help the Pound; we did see the Q3 economic growth figure which was revised up to 3.3 percent but that was overshadowed by the US GDP number which was unrevised at 4.9 percent. In essence, Sterling is on the last moped to nowhere city and it doesn’t even have road tax.
The other economic growth report that hit the wires yesterday was that of New Zealand which showed the economy growing at a very robust 0.5 percent in Q3; comfortably above estimates and enough to boost the New Zealand Dollar. As you might imagine, the downward movement in the Sterling - New Zealand Dollar exchange rate was rather marked and looks set to continue in the same bearish pattern.
Any way, we enter now into the Christmas trading period when it’s less gold, frankincense and Myrrh and more oops, crikey and wow. Some of the most exciting and dramatic fluctuations seen in the currency markets happen during the break between Christmas and the New Year when hardly any traders are at their desks and very thin volumes distort and amplify exchange rate movements. Speak with your FX consultant if you want to explore the best way to take advantage of these movements for your purposes.
In the meantime from me and everyone at Halo Financial, here’s wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas, a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Thank you for all your business during 2007 and thank you for all your emails and responses to this report throughout the year. We look forward to speaking with you and saving you money in 2008.
Nevertheless, we discovered when we arrived this morning that the foreign exchange market is still here and Sterling is still the pariah of the markets. The reasons are the same as they were yesterday if anyone can remember what they were - UK interest rates heading lower, UK housing market slowing and less interest in higher yielding currencies from the international ‘carry traders’.
The lack of UK data yesterday didn’t help the Pound; we did see the Q3 economic growth figure which was revised up to 3.3 percent but that was overshadowed by the US GDP number which was unrevised at 4.9 percent. In essence, Sterling is on the last moped to nowhere city and it doesn’t even have road tax.
The other economic growth report that hit the wires yesterday was that of New Zealand which showed the economy growing at a very robust 0.5 percent in Q3; comfortably above estimates and enough to boost the New Zealand Dollar. As you might imagine, the downward movement in the Sterling - New Zealand Dollar exchange rate was rather marked and looks set to continue in the same bearish pattern.
Any way, we enter now into the Christmas trading period when it’s less gold, frankincense and Myrrh and more oops, crikey and wow. Some of the most exciting and dramatic fluctuations seen in the currency markets happen during the break between Christmas and the New Year when hardly any traders are at their desks and very thin volumes distort and amplify exchange rate movements. Speak with your FX consultant if you want to explore the best way to take advantage of these movements for your purposes.
In the meantime from me and everyone at Halo Financial, here’s wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas, a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Thank you for all your business during 2007 and thank you for all your emails and responses to this report throughout the year. We look forward to speaking with you and saving you money in 2008.
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