Daily Insight

We have seen some significant market movement in the past 24hrs and Euro sellers should pay particular attention to this trend as the Euro strengthened against Sterling to close under the 1.4400 level last night. We can expect to see further gains this morning with Consumer Confidence in the Euro-zone forecasted to show a sharp rise to 102.8 in the month of March, reaching a 5 year high as growth in the economy begins to gain momentum. However, there has been some poor data coming out of Germany with unemployment data showing a rise in March and Retail Sales is expected to decline for the first time in 3 months, slipping 0.6% in February due primarily to higher energy prices and rising unemployment.

There was also some significant economic data released in the States yesterday as U.S. Initial Jobless Claims unexpectedly fell by 10,000 last week with claims for unemployment benefits dropping to 302,000 from 312,250 as week earlier. The Dollar was also hampered when GDP in the fourth quarter showed that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7%, the slowest pace in almost five years.

Data Released 31st March

UK 09:00 Consumer Confidence

EUR 10:00 EC Sentiment Index - Industrial Confidence

Consumer Confidence

U.S 15:45 Personal Income/Expenditure

U.S 16:00 Michigan Sentiment (Mar)

U.S 16:00 Chicago PMI (Mar)

U.S 16:00 Factory Goods Orders

written by Adam Solomon