Ivan Zhigalov
GBPUSD started last trading week at 1.5718after closing the previous one at 1.5797, thus making a gap. For 2 days the currency pair tested the option barrier 1.5721. Only on Wednesday after the BoE’s MPC meeting minutes GBPUSD started sliding down, broke below 1.5635 and reached another option barrier located at 1.5474. Nobody voted for increasing the rates, which wasn’t a surprise, as opposed to a considerable increase in the UK’s public debt. The Budget deficit reached 13.2B pounds. The FOMC meeting also contributed to the decline by announcing $400B purchases of US T-bonds, which means that the Fed Reserve is not going to print more money in the near future.
On Thursday GBPUSD fell on the US unemployment data, which turned out to be better than expected but worse than a week before, thus causing a 54-point downswing down to 1.5327. On Friday the British Pound recovered a little against the US Dollar as there were no major economic reports. The closing price was 1.5489.
The max weekly range was equal to 428 points.
As for this week, here is the list of major news reports:
Sep 26th (GMT)
14:00 USD New Home Sales
Sep 27th (GMT)
27th-30th GBP Nationwide HPI
14:00 USD CB Consumer Confidence
Sep 28th (GMT)
12:30 USD Core Durable Goods
22:00 USD Fed Chairman Bernanke Speaks
Sep 29th (GMT)
12:30 USD Unemployment Claims
14:00 USD Pending Home Sales
The volatility is expected to grow during Ben Bernanke’s speech, Unemployment Claims and Pending Home Sales.
Provided by the Department of Options,
Ivan Zhigalov
