The Pound Sterling Live - The Heart-Beat of the British Pound

British Pound Sterling Tue 18 Sept: UK currency up vs EUR and AUD as markets turn red, inflation comes in on target

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Category: The Pound Sterling Live - The Heart-Beat of The British Pound

Published on Tuesday, 18 September 2012 08:08

Written by Will Peters

The pound sterling (Currency:GBP) is taking advantage amongst more concerted stock losses in global markets this morning; it would seem that we are seeing something more than mere profit taking.

The pound euro exchange rate is 0.16 pct higher than at last night's close, GBP/EUR is seen at 1.2414.

The pound dollar exchange rate is 0.12 pct in the red at 1.6231.

The pound Australian dollar exchange rate is 0.31 pct higher at 1.5565.

So what we are seeing is that classical risk-off trade where assets such as sterling and the US dollar are picked up at the expense of higher yielding commodity currencies (AUD, NZD, ZAR) and the riskier likes of the EUR.

Ahead today we have the UK inflation report, this will be of interest but we would stress the importance of global movers in FX:

"On inflation, we have the latest UK CPI measure due today with expectations of a decline down to 2.5% from a current level of 2.6%. The danger with the relationship between inflation and the High St at the moment is that falls in CPI are more likely to be as a result of heavy discounting in order to tempt punters in. Q2 was characterised by people holding off on spending in the run-up to the Olympics. We reckon the anecdotal evidence will suggest that stores had to carve up margins to entice people through the door and corporate earnings from retailers not directly affected by Olympics (hotel, restaurants, transport) may struggle," says Jeremy Cook at WorldFirst.