Yesterdays Market movers

• In the UK we had the Gross domestic Product figures which showed no change from previous at 0.5% QoQ and 1.8% YoY, this had little effect on the pound as this is what was expected, the figures show the UK economy has made a slightly slow start to the year in terms of growth and has added further speculation that the UK will not be raising interest rates in the near future.

Yesterdays Market movers

• In the UK we had the Gross domestic Product figures which showed no change from previous at 0.5% QoQ and 1.8% YoY, this had little effect on the pound as this is what was expected, the figures show the UK economy has made a slightly slow start to the year in terms of growth and has added further speculation that the UK will not be raising interest rates in the near future.
• In the US we had the durable goods orders and durable goods for ex transportation. Both came in much worse at -3.6% and -1.5%. These poor figures may have stemmed from the earthquake crisis in Japan as this has disrupted supply, this was the biggest drop in three years, we went back to fundamentals and we witnessed commodities and stocks go higher. GBP-USD rose to as high as 1.6293 yesterday now at 1.6333 from 1.6130 from the back of this information.
• There was no information released from Euro-zone although the only piece of positive news was that Finland agreed to Portugal’s EU/IMF bailout.

Today’s market movers

• In the US we have the real personal consumption expenditures and the gross domestic product which is expected slightly worse from 3.1% to 2.2%.
• If US GDP comes in lower this will again indicate that the US will not be raising interest rates in the near future.
• From the UK later this evening we also have the GFK consumer confidence which is expected in line with consensus at -31.