Position Squaring Ahead Of Big Week - The GBP finish off the week with the poorest showing of all the majors, capped off today with downward revision to Q4 GDP to -0.6% from -0.5%. Now the question in the market will be how can any MPC member vote in favor of a rate hike with these numbers. Next week there are central bank meeting for the ECB and the Bank of England so we will probably hear more inflation-fighting rhetoric. For the Euro, today's election results in Ireland will be watched for any anti Euro rhetoric. Meanwhile, the Yen, CHF, and gold came off there weekly highs as price of oil eased allowing stock markets to eke out some gains. Take this as a breather rather than a change in trend as the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East show no sign of abating. In the US, the main focus next week will be the jobs reports and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to deliver his semi-annual report on monetary policy to the U.S. House of Representatives' financial services committee on March 3. The jobs report needs to bounce back from its recent weakness and the market will try to gleam any new insight into possible end of QE2 or worse the possibility of a QE3. In Canada, the CAD pushed to a 3-year high in overnight trading but back off this morning as the price of oil came off a little and the US GDP report disappointed the market. U.S. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.8% in Q4, which was down from the advance reading showed growth of 3.2% and the expected reading of 3.3%.
No comments:
Post a Comment