Daily Insight

The Euro weakened against the majors last week following the ECB's unexpected announcement that there is a 'high probability' interest rates will remain at 2.50% next month and we have traded towards 1.4400 against Sterling this morning following the release of worse than expected French Industrial production data. However, with the German Investor's confidence report due out tomorrow and set to show an increase in April, we can expect the euro to regain some of the losses of last week.

We have a significant week of ahead of us in terms of data released in the UK with the Unemployment rate set to show an increase in March with the number of Britons claiming benefits soaring to its highest level in almost 3 years. Forecasters are anticipating that the figures, released on Wednesday, will show a rise of 6,500 jobless claims in February to 926,000. Today, we have Producer Prices released in the UK and forecasters are anticipating that the figures may be hampered by rising manufacturers' costs due to higher oil prices.

The Dollar was buoyed on Friday afternoon following better than expected Nonfarm Payrolls data as the monthly job report showed that 211.000 jobs were added in the U.S in March with the unemployment rate marginally improved to 4.7% from 4.8% in February. As a result, the dollar strengthened against the majors as growth in the U.S labour market fuelled speculation that the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates again this month. There is some important data released in the States towards the middle of the week with the U.S. Trade balance expected to show a slight improvement last month from the record $68.5 Billion deficit in February.

Data Released 10th April

UK 09:30 Producer Price Index

written by Adam Solomon