Sterling was on the back foot yesterday, marking losses against both the Euro and the Greenback. The Dollar has been able to pick up some ground midway through the week as buying interest remains steady. With markets pessimistic about the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant and its impact on the global economy, investors are turning to the Dollar for safety. The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the Dollar against its 6 major rivals, stands firm at 92.03. The resurgence of Dollar interest has also put pressures on the Euro. After rising from the multi-month lows last week, EURUSD is under heavy pressure now to trade lower. Helping the Greenback finish yesterday’s session strong was the release of June’s CB Consumer Confidence. The actual reading came in at 127.3 despite being forecasted at 119. The US economy will look favourably upon this figure as it shows US consumers are at present, optimistic. When consumers are optimistic, they tend to spend more, thus increasing consumption and overall economic growth.
GBPUSD started Tuesday’s session at 1.3875 but was quickly exposed to the downside. Cable finally closed the day below the 1.3850 mark at 1.3833.
GBPEUR also made a loss yesterday – opening at 1.1639 and closing at 1.1620.
EURUSD was dragged closer to the 1.1900 handle yesterday as Dollar demand picked up. The pair started the session at 1.1920 and closed at 1.1903.
On the data front, this morning at 07:00 the UK published its final YoY (Q1) GDP Growth Rate at -6.1%. Then at 08:55, German Unemployment Change beat expectations coming in at -38K. At the same time German Unemployment Rate came in as forecasted at 5.9%. The markets focus for the rest of the day will be the ECB Core Inflation Rate at 10:00, followed by US ADP Employment Change in the afternoon.
