London Session Recap

Daily Forex Fundamentals | Written by Forex.com | Aug 13 08 11:58 GMT |


The greenback gained some ground against the majors in London after being sold for the better part of the Asia session. The trend of disappointing economic data out of Europe continued and helped the buck out. Euro-zone industrial production showed no growth in June, taking the annual rate to a worse than expected -0.5% from -0.4% the prior month.

Meanwhile, the UK employment report was nothing to write home about. UK jobless claims rose a higher than anticipated 20.1K in July after an upwardly revised 20.0K the prior month. The increase in unemployment was the highest in nearly 16 years and this led the Bank of England to cut growth forecasts, to boot.

EURUSD traded lower on the weak data, opening the session near 1.4925 and closing around the 1.4870 mark. GBPUSD got pounded -- no pun intended -- more than 200 pips from an open near 1.8975 to a close around the 1.8760 level. This helped USDCAD higher, and the pair was sitting near 1.0700 at the close after opening around the 1.0650 area. USDJPY also managed to gain -- after pulling back sharply in the Asia session -- from an open near 108.85 towards 108.95 at the close.

The market will now focus on US retail sales data due up at 1230GMT. The consensus is for a -0.1% decline on the headline and for a 0.5% gain excluding the downtrodden auto industry. A downside surprise should see some giveback in the USD initially and could provide an opportunity to enter into fresh USD long positions at a better price. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (NY Session) Prior Estimate

* 8/13/2008 12:30 GMT US Import Price Index (MoM) JUL 2.6% 1.0%
* 8/13/2008 12:30 GMT US Import Price Index (YoY) JUL 20.5% 20.9%
* 8/13/2008 12:30 GMT US Advance Retail Sales JUL 0.1% 0.1%
* 8/13/2008 12:30 GMT US Retail Sales Less Autos JUL 0.8% 0.5%
* 8/13/2008 14:00 GMT US Business Inventories JUN 0.3% 0.5%
* 8/13/2008 14:30 GMT US DOE U.S. Crude Oil Inventories AUG 8 1614K - -
* 8/13/2008 14:30 GMT US DOE U.S. Gasoline Inventories AUG 8 -4344K - -

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