Pounds to Euro Exchange Rate Today - GBP USD Falls In Spite of Positive US Non-Farm Payroll Data, GBP EUR Holds Steady

9 Jan 2012 at 8 AM - Written by Frank Davies

STORY LINK Pounds to Euro Exchange Rate Today - GBP USD Falls In Spite of Positive US Non-Farm Payroll Data, GBP EUR Holds Steady

The Pound Euro exchange rate (GBP EUR) is 1.2101. The Pound Dollar exchange rate (GBP USD) is 1.5451. The Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate (GBP AUD) is 1.5114.

Friday afternoon’s session saw the release of December’s US Non-Farm Payroll data, which provided further evidence that the green shoots of recovery are strengthening in the world’s largest economy.

The closely-watched figure showed that some 200,000 new jobs were created in the non-farming sectors of America’s economy last month. Analysts had anticipated an improvement on November’s counterpart figure of 120,000, but the 200,000 new jobs far exceeded their expectations of that 150,000 new positions had been generated.

It was the sixth month of job creation in a row for the US economy, showing a concerted strengthening of America’s real economy. The December gains meant that a total of 1.6m new positions were generated in the US last year, suggesting that President Obama’s Democrat administration has succeeded in steering the world’s largest economy away from the brink.

Ordinarily, investors would expect such a positive figure from a major economy to cause an upward movement in global appetite for risk, sending stock markets higher and causing the USD to weaken, as market participants shifted out of their positions of safety. However, these are not ordinary times and the Dow Jones closed down by almost 0.5% on Friday, following the release of the figure. This saw the GBP USD exchange rate reject an intraday high of 1.5670 to end the week’s session at 1.5425.

The positive news from the US was more than offset by Eurozone employment data for November, released on Friday morning, which showed that unemployment in the region had remained at a record high. Concerns over a debt stand-off between Hungary and the IMF, added to Friday’s risk-off trading environment.

Meanwhile, German leader Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet in Germany today in an attempt to placate investors and convince the markets that the Eurozone is on track to resolve its current debt crisis. The mood of indecision emanating from Europe added to risk aversion at the end of last week. If this mood prevails during today’s session, then upside is possible for the GBP AUD, GBP NZD and GBP ZAR exchange rates.


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