GBP

Following
Monday’s heavy sell off, the pound managed to claw some of these losses after
UK construction output rose to a six and a half year high in January.

The
data from Markit revealed that construction firms hired more people in January,
the eighth month running, and all subsectors of construction – house building,
commercial property construction and civil engineering – all saw rising
activity.

GBP

Following
Monday’s heavy sell off, the pound managed to claw some of these losses after
UK construction output rose to a six and a half year high in January.

The
data from Markit revealed that construction firms hired more people in January,
the eighth month running, and all subsectors of construction – house building,
commercial property construction and civil engineering – all saw rising
activity.

Overall
whilst the pound showed gains, these gains were limited ahead of the Bank of
England’s quarterly inflation report next Wednesday, where investors will look
to gauge what kind of guidance the Bank will give with regards to a hike in
interest rates.

EUR

Data
from the Eurozone was fairly mixed yesterday. Spanish unemployment rose again,
despite the government insisting that the economy was improving. The number of
unemployed people rose by 113,097 in January, far more than expected.

The
Eurozone producer price index, although falling by 0.8%, actually came in
better than expected. The producer price index measures the changes in prices
by domestic producers of commodities.

As
a result of the mixed data, movements on the Euro were fairly flat.

USD

Only
one notable bit of information from the US yesterday, with US factory orders
falling by 1.5% in December. However the fall wasn’t quite as bad as markets
had anticipating, with the fall largely attributed to a drop in transportation
order. In fact, if this is taken out of the equation then factory orders were
up by 0.2%.

Today

Data
this morning from the Eurozone has been mixed, causing minimal movements on the
euro.

The
service sectors in the Spain, France and Germany all expanded beyond
expectations for January. However in the Eurozone as a whole, whilst there was
as expansion, the expansion was not as much as markets were expecting.

Service
sector detail are due from the UK this morning as well as Eurozone retail
sales. ADP employment figures may disappoint this afternoon from the US, which
could weaken the US dollar and the day rounds off with service sector figures
from the US.

Key Announcements:

9.28am
– GBP – Markit Services PMI (Jan): Expected to expand to 59.

10.00am
– EUR – Retail Sales (Dec): Expected to fall by 0.5%. 

13.15pm
– USD – ADP Employment Change (Jan): Expected to have dropped to 180,000 jobs
added.

13.58pm
– USD Markit Services PMI (Jan): Expected to expand to 53.7.