Forex Market Updates & Commentary

BOE Weale says increase in rates may prevent bigger move later
German IFO stronger than expectations
German Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI
French Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI
ECB’s Bini Smaghi; seems to view tightening sooner than later
2-21 Economic Calendar
UK Rightmove HPI 3.1%; better than the prior release of 0.3%

BOE Weale says increase in rates may prevent bigger move later

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 05:27 AM PST

Policy members must think of medium term risk
Higher rate would not bring CPI to target quickly
All economic recoveries are subject to risk.

The comments suggest that Weale is likely to be a dissenting vote. He dissented in January so this will not be something new.

On Wednesday, the BOE minutes from their last meeting will be released. In January, 6 members voted with Mervyn King, Weale and Andrew Sentence dissented in favor of raising rates and one member Posen preferred to add 50 billion of extra stimulus.

German IFO stronger than expectations

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 01:05 AM PST

German IFO Business Climate came in at 111.2, stronger than the 110.3 expected.

Current Assessment came in at 114.7, stronger than the 113.0 expected.

IFO Expectations came in at 107.9, stronger than the 107.5 expected.

This news pushed Euro above 1.3700, as the pair currently trades at 1.3707.

German Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 12:46 AM PST

German Flash Manufacturing PMI came in at 62.6, stronger than the 60.3 expected.

Services PMI came in at 59.5, weaker than the 60.3 expected.

Eur/Usd is looking to break above 1.3700 upon release of this news. The pair currently resides just shy at 1.3695.

French Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 12:06 AM PST

French Flash Manufacturing PMI came in at 55.3, stronger than the 55.0 expected.

Flash Services PMI came in at 60.8, stronger than the 58.0 expected.

Eur/Usd currently trades at 1.3675, relatively unchanged.

ECB’s Bini Smaghi; seems to view tightening sooner than later

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 10:54 PM PST

ECB’s Bini Smaghi is speaking in Hong Kong. He believes that there is no single fiscal policy that is good for the Eurozone as a whole. He doesn’t feel that decentralized policies are necessarily bad. Growth and unemployment are better than expected.

His comments are likely to lead to speculation that he views tightening sooner rather than later. This is not a new stance for Bini Smaghi.

2-21 Economic Calendar

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 09:42 PM PST

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