Daily Market Report 23/12/2013

GBP

On the whole the pound didn’t have a strong day on Friday,
falling against most of its trading partners.

Main focus for the UK was GDP figures. These came in very
strong when compared with last year. Third quarter figures last year showed a
1.3% growth, whereas this year growth came in at 1.9%, far above the expected
1.5% growth.

EUR

GBP

On the whole the pound didn’t have a strong day on Friday,
falling against most of its trading partners.

Main focus for the UK was GDP figures. These came in very
strong when compared with last year. Third quarter figures last year showed a
1.3% growth, whereas this year growth came in at 1.9%, far above the expected
1.5% growth.

EUR

Pretty quiet in Eurozone on Friday. There was a consumer
confidence report out in the afternoon which showed an improvement from the
previous month of -15.4 to -13.6. After the release of this report the EUR
strengthened.

CAD

Inflation figures out from Canada revealed a decrease from
1.2% to 1.1%, which would put pressure on the Bank of Canada to keep interest
rates as they are.

USD

GDP figures also out in the USA, revealing strong growth.
Annualised Q3 figures came in at 4.1%, far above the forecast of 3.6% and
improving significantly from last year figure of 2.5% growth. The US dollar
strengthened initially after the release of the data, however shortly after, the
US dollar weakened by around 70 pips.

The good GDP figures will be welcome news for the Federal
Reserve a day after making their decision to taper quantitative easing.

Key Announcements:

13.30pm – CAD – GDP (Oct): Expected to fall to 0.2%.

13.30pm – USD – Personal Spending (Nov): Expected to
increase to 0.5%.

13.30pm – USD – Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (Nov):
Expected to increase to 1.2%.