Sterling relinquished its weekly euro gains, starting on a weaker footing against the single currency. Against the dollar however, sterling finds new strength, climbing by almost 0.7% against the greenback compared to this time last week.
On the data front, there are lots of events that could move sterling over the course of this week. Markets will see fresh inflation data for the UK on Wednesday. As well as this, the latest unemployment rate, retail sales and consumer confidence will be released. Market participants will be watching closely for how these key data releases impact sterling’s movements.
The euro continued to march higher in the third week of January, maintaining weekly gains against both sterling and the US dollar. This week euro-watchers will have a plethora of key data releases to keep a close eye on.
The eurozone’z ZEW economic sentiment index will be one to watch on Tuesday, while on Wednesday, the spotlight will be on the annual inflation rate. Preliminary estimates showed that eurozone inflation fell to 9.2% and if markets are correct, this will point to the lowest rate in four months.
On Friday, better than expected data in the latest University of Michigan consumer sentiment shocked markets. The preliminary estimates rose to 64.6 in January (from 59.7 in December), pointing to the highest reading since April and beating market forecasts of 60.5.
This week, the spotlight will be on retail sales, producer price inflation and several housing indicators. There will also be 9 speeches from the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members between today and Friday.
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