Daily Insight

We witnessed a significant day of market movement yesterday with the Dollar plunging to a yearly low against the majors following Ben Bernanke's comments at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. The Federal Reserve chairman gave the clearest indication yet that they are nearing the end of their current rate cycle after raising U.S interest rates fifteen consecutive times in just 21-months to a five-year high of 4.75% with the next scheduled FOMC meeting on May 10th. As a result, the Dollar weakened to trade above 1.8000 against Sterling for the first time in 2006 and with some important U.S data released this afternoon, we will be looking for further evidence of a slow-down in the economy with first quarter GDP released at 13:30.

UK House Price growth dropped sharply in April according to a monthly nationwide survey with prices rising by just 0.1% against an increase of 1.1% last month and annual house price inflation fell to 4.8% from 5.3% in March. There is some significant data released in the UK this morning with Consumer Confidence expected to decline in April following higher energy prices and rising fuel costs.

The Euro continues to make gains against the majors after reaching 1.2540 against the Dollar in the aftermath of Ben Bernanke's comments yesterday afternoon and we continue to trade under 1.4400 against Sterling with Eurozone inflation expected to rise from 2.2% in March to 2.3% this month with the initial estimate released this morning.

Data Released 28th April

UK 10:30 Consumer Confidence (April)

EU 10:00 Flash HICP (April)

EU 10:00 Sentiment Index (April)

U.S 13:30 GDP/Deflator (Q1)

U.S 14:45 Final Michigan Sentiment (April)

U.S 15:00 Chicago PMI (April)

written by Adam Solomon