GBP/USD continued its struggle around the 1.21 area after yesterday’s strong performance from The Dollar. This was mainly due to 10 year Bond’s in The US touching 4.5% for the first time since 2007 and therefore bringing even more support to The USD.
Early this morning Australia’s Retail Sales figures for August were released, with figures showing a bigger decline than expected. Dropping from 0.5% to 0.2%, instead of the 0.3% initially forecast. With Australians facing a similar story to The UK with higher living and borrowing costs, consumers have reigned in on their spending and with interest rates notably having an impact, it could be a signal that rates may not have to rise any further.
Across the morning we have a wrath of business confidence and economic sentiment throughout Europe, with the most important coming from The Euro Area in particular. With Consumer Confidence and Industrial Sentiment both showing signs of a lack of optimism moving forward.
German Inflation is due out at 1pm this afternoon with another large fall in numbers expected, with forecasts suggesting inflation will have dropped from 6.1% to 4.6%, which could translate into a fall for The Euro Area inflation. Initial forecasts suggest The Euro Area inflation will drop by 0.5%, however with Germany’s inflation set to drop by much more (1.5%), tomorrow’s data release could spring a surprise for clients exposed to Euro’s.