Sterling slips on weak retail sales data
Sterling hit a one- month low against the US dollar on Tuesday as poor retail sales data added to the gloom surrounding the UK economy.
Comparable retail sales tumbled by 4.7 per cent in April, according to the British Retail Consortium, the biggest fall since records began in 1995. Adding to the gloom, the Land Registry said UK house prices rose 10.3 per cent in the year to the first quarter of 2005, the smallest annual increase since the first quarter of 2002, with transactions down 35 per cent on a year earlier.
The data come just a day after it emerged that the UK manufacturing sector was faltering.
Despite some concerns that the retail sales figures may have been distorted by an early Easter, the pound fell 0.5 per cent to $1.8763 against the dollar before recovering to $1.8817, 0.3 per cent to £0.6835 against the euro, 0.3 per cent to Y198.66 against the yen and 0.4 per cent to A$2.4269 against the Australian dollar.
Elsewhere major currencies were little changed, although the dollar reversed early gains to sit at $1.2870 against the euro and Y105.53 against the yen amid jitters ahead of today’s update on US trade, with the deficit likely to have widened to $61.9bn in March.
There were also rumours in the market that a number of US hedge funds may have got their fingers burnt shorting GM and that last week’s strong US payrolls data may have overstated real jobs growth.
The Norwegian krone rose 0.6 per cent to a near one-year high of SKr1.1357 against its Swedish counterpart as strong inflation data supported talk of a Norwegian rate hike, with UBS seeing this happening as early as June.
The New Zealand dollar initially slid 0.6 per cent to $0.7257 against the greenback, amid a claim that foot and mouth disease had been deliberately released on a small island near Auckland.
If true, the news could be potentially devastating for New Zealand, with exports of dairy products, meat, wool and hides accounting for almost a third of the country’s NZ$31bn of annual exports. However the kiwi later recovered to $0.7309 on speculation that the claim was a hoax.
Comparable retail sales tumbled by 4.7 per cent in April, according to the British Retail Consortium, the biggest fall since records began in 1995. Adding to the gloom, the Land Registry said UK house prices rose 10.3 per cent in the year to the first quarter of 2005, the smallest annual increase since the first quarter of 2002, with transactions down 35 per cent on a year earlier.
The data come just a day after it emerged that the UK manufacturing sector was faltering.
Despite some concerns that the retail sales figures may have been distorted by an early Easter, the pound fell 0.5 per cent to $1.8763 against the dollar before recovering to $1.8817, 0.3 per cent to £0.6835 against the euro, 0.3 per cent to Y198.66 against the yen and 0.4 per cent to A$2.4269 against the Australian dollar.
Elsewhere major currencies were little changed, although the dollar reversed early gains to sit at $1.2870 against the euro and Y105.53 against the yen amid jitters ahead of today’s update on US trade, with the deficit likely to have widened to $61.9bn in March.
There were also rumours in the market that a number of US hedge funds may have got their fingers burnt shorting GM and that last week’s strong US payrolls data may have overstated real jobs growth.
The Norwegian krone rose 0.6 per cent to a near one-year high of SKr1.1357 against its Swedish counterpart as strong inflation data supported talk of a Norwegian rate hike, with UBS seeing this happening as early as June.
The New Zealand dollar initially slid 0.6 per cent to $0.7257 against the greenback, amid a claim that foot and mouth disease had been deliberately released on a small island near Auckland.
If true, the news could be potentially devastating for New Zealand, with exports of dairy products, meat, wool and hides accounting for almost a third of the country’s NZ$31bn of annual exports. However the kiwi later recovered to $0.7309 on speculation that the claim was a hoax.
posted by Drs Search @ 10:48 AM
1 Comments:
At 7:34 AM,
El_Rugas said…
What do you think will be the impact on the Euro with the revaluation fo the Yuan? Will it go up or down against the dollar?How will that happen?
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