With a week almost depleted of data from the UK, last week’s stronger economic data continued to offer support for the local currency. Positive sentiment still emanating from last week’s strong GDP and retail sales report helped sterling to hold on to its gains. Today the pound could come under pressure with the release of Nationwide house prices, which are expected to ease off.


The euro also continues to be supported by the recently improved economic data and on the view that concerns over the Euro Zone debt crisis have eased. Today will see the release of Euro Zone sentiment figures although these are not expected to improve significantly. Also of significance this morning will be German employment figures.


Weaker durable goods orders released in the US yesterday and a cautious outlook indicated in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report helped to support the US dollar. There is no data out today but the most important release of the week will be tomorrow’s US Q2 GDP data.


The Japanese yen has recently strengthened on the back of risk aversion and weaker data released in the US. This has prompted an inflow of capitals however, as always, a stronger yen leads to increased costs to exporters and the spectre of central bank intervention in currency markets has arisen once more.


Alongside house prices, the UK also sees consumer credit, mortgage approval/ lending and money supply figures. In the Euro Zone, sentiment data and German unemployment will be accompanied by French producer prices and Italian business confidence. The US calendar is relatively light ahead of tomorrow’s GDP announcement with weekly jobless claims the only noteworthy release.


• United Kingdom
Consumer Credit (Jun)
Money Supply (Jun)
Mortgage Approvals/ Lending (Jun)

• United States
KC Federal Reserve (Jul)
Weekly Jobless Claims

• Euro Zone
Business Climate (Jul)
Inflation Expectations (Jul)
Sentiment Surveys (Jul)
France – Producer Prices (Jun)
Germany – Unemployment (Jul)
Italy – Business Confidence (Jul)
Italy – Wage Inflation (Jun)