Pound Reaches 22-month High vs. Euro (Bloomberg.com May 1st 2012)

May 1st 2012, Keith Jenkins, Kristine Aquino, Monami Yui, Mariko Ishikawa, Bloomberg.com

Today the GBP reaches a 22-month high against the Euro after a report showing a rise in British house prices, causing a new interest in UK assets (Jenkins, 2012).

“The housing data wasn’t too bad,” said Neil Jones, the head of European hedge-fund sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in London. “It doesn’t take a lot of positive data to boost the pound at the moment as there is so much expectation of gloom. Any glimmer of hope can help the currency appreciate” (Jenkins, 2012).

The US Dollar may experince declines against the CAD looking at its trading patterns: Dollar fell below 98.42 Canadian cents, the previous 2012 low reached on March 1, and fell to 98.23 cents on April 25, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It set a new year- low at 98 cents on April 27, the data show (Aquino, 2012).

The Euro was also within a 0.3% low, the lowest in 2 weeks against the Yen as Spain acted amidst concerns on the Euro debt crisis hurting economic growth (Yui & Aquino, 2012). Also the Aussie fell versus most of its peers as the Reserve Bank sets interest rates at a policy meeting (Yui & Aquino, 2012).

“The Australian dollar is waiting for the RBA decision today,” said Kurt Magnus, executive director of foreign- exchange sales in Sydney at Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage. “If the Reserve Bank does cut 50 basis points, that is not factored into the Australian dollar. The Australian dollar will pull back sharply to $1.0330. A small fall in China PMI was within our analyst forecasts” (Ishikawa, 2012).

To read the full articles, go here:
Jenkins, K 2012, Bloomberg.com
Aquino, K 2012, Bloomberg.com
Yui, M & Aquino, K 2012, Bloomberg.com
Ishikawa, M 2012, Bloomberg.com