Daily currency report
Overview
The British police foiling a suspected plot to destroy several aircraft between the UK and the US still dominates market news. The upshot of this was that the pound was shifted from its two-year high and erased some of the gains made after the surprise BoE rate hike last week.
GBP
The British pound came under pressure as soon as the news of the foiled terror plots in London was released. This unsettled the UK market and dented the positive sentiment that the pound developed. Sterling fell against the dollar and hit this week's low against the euro.
USD
The dollar rallied after the release of the US trade data revealed that the US goods and services deficit fell from an expected $65 billion to $64.8 billion, which was driven by a rise in exports and consumer goods.
EUR
Softer inflationary numbers could be of concern for the ECB, but we will not see concrete evidence of this until the consumer price numbers from Germany, France, Italy and Spain are released.
JPY
The Yen fell further across the board as the Bank of Japan decided to maintain interest rates at 0.25 per cent, following data illustrating that Japan's economy posted tepid growth. Japanese central bankers have stressed that further increases will occur gradually.
Compiled by Commercial Foreign Exchange Travelex Malta, free phone: 800 77 33 22, www.travelex.com.mt