Latest Articles by Ben Hughes

The fortunes of the US Dollar and conditions in America’s vast labour market have been intertwined since the Federal Reserve stated last month that it would not be calling a halt to its controversial Quantitative Easing programme until the jobs situation in the States had improved considerably. This set up means that any employment data in...

Last night’s Asian session was marked by a pronounced downside move for both the Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate (currency : GBP AUD) and the Pound to new Zealand Dollar exchange rate (currency : GBP NZD). Both Antipodean tenders enjoyed strong support overnight thanks to better than anticipated domestic employment data. New...

The Euro has strengthened against the US Dollar as the Italian political crisis finally came to an end increasing demand for riskier assets, investors however remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday as many expect the Bank to announce an interest rate cut. The Euro was supported by high demand for Italian...

Two months after its inconclusive general election, Italy appears to have a new leader in place. Yesterday afternoon’s session brought the announcement that the debt-saddled Mediterranean nation’s President Giorgio Napolitano had asked Enrico Letta, the little-known deputy leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, to form a new rainbow...

The Japanese Yen resumed its decline, falling for a fourth day against the US Dollar (JPY/USD) after Japanese finance Minister Taro Aso said that Japan’s stimulus policies have gone unopposed at the G-20 meeting in Washington. The Yen has dropped by around 1.1% against all of its major counterparts as speculation of further easing helped...

A potent cocktail of geo-political events over recent sessions have caused global appetite for risk to ebb. Political uncertainty in Italy got the ball rolling some six weeks ago when an indecisive general election triggered fears that the debt-burdened Mediterranean state might be about to ditch its austerity plan. Matters got worse, much...

Another day, another IMF-backed bailout. Yesterday’s session in the markets brought the news that representatives from the International Monetary Fund were in Cairo hammering out the details of an emergency loan reported to be worth £3.2bn to the debt-burdened Mediterranean state. It appears likely that Egypt, in common with other nations...

Yesterday was a public holiday across the majority of the Western world, meaning that there was limited trading in the foreign currency markets. However, it was a normal session for Asian market participants, meaning that there was price movement for many of the world’s major currency pairs. The Pound fared reasonably well against the...

The weekend market shut-down often gives currency market participants pause for reflection and allows the preceding Friday’s global situations to calm down. However, this week’s market close simply allowed the one major pent up potential flashpoint on investors’ minds to increase in gravity. The debt crisis in Cyprus snowballed in...

Sterling has come under renewed selling pressure this afternoon, following UK Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement during his Budget Statement that the Office for Budget Responsibility has slashed its official GDP growth forecast for the British economy for 2013 from 1.2% to 0.6%. The previous prediction of an increase of 1.2% in...