EN:British Pound Sterling: Currency suffers vs EUR and USD
Pound vs Dollar exchange rate
The pound dollar exchange rate (GBP USD) is 0.006% higher on the day with 1 GBP = 1.6373 USD.
Yesterday the British Pound lost a cent to the US dollar, perhaps on a reassessment of the chances of QE3.
"The market may have got its hopes too high that Bernanke will be indicating a third round of US quantitative easing tomorrow. Bets against the dollar were unwound then, and this pair headed over a cent lower," warns exchange rate analysts Richard Driver at UK money transfer company Caxton Fx.
GBP USD should avoid further major losses from its current $1.64 level today, helped by a pretty robust euro/dollar pairing. UK CBI retail sales data this morning looks likely to disappoint, but this may not bother the market too much.
British Pound vs Euro
The pound euro exchange rate (GBP EUR) is 0.229% lower with 1 GBP = 1.1327 EUR.
GBP EUR lost a cent yesterday as investors moved away from sterling in search of riskier assets.
"Movements in the currency markets have been dictated more by risk on/risk off plays in recent sessions, rather than fundamental data. It was little surprise then that yesterday’s poor German business climate and eurozone industrial new orders data failed to hinder the single currency yesterday," says a note from the money transfer uk company.
MPC policymaker Martin Weale is due to talk this afternoon but he is unlikely to tell us anything we do not already know. The
UK economy is weak, but it is not panic stations and the BoE are still firmly in wait and see mode. This pair is trading over a cent lower near €1.13, and sterling may struggle to bounce back today.