USD/GBP Rate & Comments for 27th July 2010

USD/GBP - 1.547

Sterling hit a 5 month high against the US dollar in early trading this morning, tentatively reaching $1.5530/£1 in early trading as investors looked to target ‘riskier’ trades. Following Friday’s generally benign stress test results for European banks, stock markets rose globally yesterday as appetite for risk grew amongst global investors despite heavy criticism of the tests from many commentators for not going far enough. Sterling has benefited from strong economic data recently and this has seen strength against the US dollar. Many analysts pointed to the fact that the pound is limited in where it can go against the US dollar simply by the sheer performance it has put in over the last week, but there is potential for the pound to strengthen further against the euro. After a very quiet day yesterday on the data front, there is CBI realised sales data out today which is a useful indicator of sales volume/ performance amongst retailers and wholesalers. Call in now for a live exchange rate.

In the USA, the major piece of data was US new home sales which provided a rare ray of light in an otherwise gloomy housing market. The figures showed a jump of 23.6% to an annual rate of 330,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 267,000 units in May. This was the largest percentage jump since May 1980 and has been attributed to the expiry of tax credits in April which saw a record low figure in June. Out later today there is consumer confidence data which is expected to show a mild decline following recent poor data. Call in now to take advantage of the best US dollar prices for 5 months.

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