GBP

The
pound was boosted in early trade on Friday after building society Halifax
revealed that house prices increased by more than expected in November to 7.7%.

However
the currency struggled to hold onto these early gains as market continued to
digest the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to hold the interest rate at
0.5%.

EUR

GBP

The
pound was boosted in early trade on Friday after building society Halifax
revealed that house prices increased by more than expected in November to 7.7%.

However
the currency struggled to hold onto these early gains as market continued to
digest the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to hold the interest rate at
0.5%.

EUR

Despite
data from German disappointing and showing that factory orders for November
fell to 1.9% from 7.8%, the euro continued to be supported following Thursday’s
monetary policy statement by Mario Draghi of the ECB.

Despite
recent rumours, the ECB gave no indication that negative interest rate will be
introduced. As a result the euro rallied to a four week high against the US
dollar and finished higher on the week against the pound.

USD

Data
from the US beat expectations on all fronts on Friday causing bets to double
that the Fed may look to taper quantitative easing potentially .

The
number of new jobs added increased to 203,000, more than the expected 180,000
economists were expecting. Adding to this the unemployment rate fell to a five
year low to 7% in November from 7.3% in October. Data from the Reuters/Michigan
consumer sentiment index also increased more than expected 82.5

Whilst
the US dollar gained initially off the back of the data, it would appear that
the markets were expecting a good print as profit taking on the US dollar
following the data soon ensued causing the US dollar to finish lower across the
board on Friday.

CAD

The
Canadian dollar caught some relief on Friday following slightly better figures
from their job market. Whilst the unemployment rate remained at 6.9%, the net
change of employment in November increased more than expected to 21,600.

Today

Data
from the Eurozone will be in focus today with German trade balance and
industrial production figures both set to improve in November. As well as this,
the Sentix investor confidence is set to have improved in December. As a
result, we could well see a continuation of euro strength.

Comments
from James Bullard and Richard Fisher, members of the Federal Reserve, will be
in focus this evening to ascertain any gauge of when the Fed will look to taper
QE.

Key Announcements:

9.30am
– EUR – Sentix Investor Confidence (Dec): Expected to increase to 10.4.

11.00am
– EUR – German Industrial Confidence (Oct): Expected to increase.

13.15pm
–CAD – Housing Starts (Nov): Expected to fall to 195,000.