Foreign Exchange Report : GBP USD Rate Heads Higher Following Friday?s Better-Than-Anticipated Non-Farm Payrolls Data

Published: Monday, 10 October 2011 08:57 BST - Written by John Cameron

STORY LINK Foreign Exchange Report : GBP USD Rate Heads Higher Following Friday?s Better-Than-Anticipated Non-Farm Payrolls Data

The Pound Euro exchange rate (GBP EUR) is 1.1550. The Pound Dollar exchange rate (GBP USD) is 1.5614. The Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate (GBP AUD) is 1.5811.

Last week ended on a positive note with the release of significantly better-than-anticipated US labour market data. September’s Non-Farm Payrolls data in the US showed that 103,000 new jobs had been created in the non-farming sectors of the world’s leading economy last month. This significantly outstripped analysts’ expectations that the figure would show that only 60,000 new positions had been generated.

The global economy was badly in need of a positive data release following worrying economic figures over the past month, including a succession of PMI Manufacturing surveys which have suggested that global manufacturing output is contracting in several leading economies across the globe. With leading indicators such as PMI surveys on the wane, several major central banks have downgraded their growth projections for the next two years for their respective economies and the IMF has lowered its estimates for global growth rates.

Friday’s positive US jobs data has seen Asian share markets trade into positive territory overnight as investors regain their appetite for risk. The FTSE 100 in London has followed suit in the early part of the European session, opening slightly up on the day. The up-tick in global risk sentiment has caused the US Dollar to lose ground in early trading this week, sending the GBP USD rate above 1.5600 once again.

Conversely, the improvement in investor sentiment has seen the Australian Dollar and Rand particularly well supported in the early part of this week’s session. This pattern may continue if yesterday’s meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy leads to an announcement today o provide a cogent solution to the Eurozone debt crisis.


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