Published: 12/02/2024 By ECAP
The British Pound remains well supported and the coming week’s heavy economic calendar could offer a further boost if the data confirms the UK economy picked up steam at the start of the year. In fact, inflation, wages, GDP, and retail sales data will be closely monitored and should the data beat expectations, markets would expect rate cut bets to reduce further, leading to increased sterling upside.The Euro has been suffering from rising bets that the European Central Bank will start cutting interest rates at the start of the second quarter. In fact, the bets were reaffirmed by a fall in German inflation, which eased to the 3.1% YoY in January from the 3.8% in the previous month. Moving ahead, investors now look to the first estimate of the fourth-quarter GDP growth figures from the Eurozone due for release on Wednesday.
The Dollar remains 2024's top-performing currency, but it has lost some impetus of late as investors await a slew of cues on U.S. interest rates this week. CPI data for January is due tomorrow and is expected to show some easing in inflation. However, price pressures are still expected to remain relatively sticky, with the core CPI print in particular set to remain well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target – a scenario that gives the Fed more impetus to keep rates higher for longer.
Data supplied by GC Partners