Keep informed with the latest GBP, EUR and USD Analysis of the week with the Market Report from Orbis Exchange Group (15/05/23 - 19/05/23)

Market Report 15/05/23 - 19/05/23

Key Points

• Unemployment rate data released in the UK
• GDP Figures out for the Eurozone
• Retail sales figures out for the US

GBP

At the start of last week, we saw GBP rise to highest rate for 13 months against the USD and the highest rate against the Euro for the whole of 2023. These highs did start to drop off once the BoE’s interest rate decision was released, a 25-bps rate hike was not enough to keep the Pound’s strength going. We also had GDP figures released last week, we didn’t see a change from 0.1%. This week we have the Unemployment rate being released, if we see a rise in the Unemployment levels in the UK then this could be seen as a bearish result, but if we see a drop in the result, then this could have a positive effect on GBP quotes this week.

EUR

Last week for the Euro we had Inflation data released from Germany, the Eurozone’s biggest economy, we didn’t see any change in the expected levels of inflation, this data wasn’t enough to stop the Euro showing weakness all week against both the USD and GBP. This week we have GDP Figures being released for the Eurozone, if we see a growth from the results then this could have a bullish effect on the Euro, whereas if we did see a drop, then this could have a negative effect on Euro quotes this week. We also have inflation data this week, if we continue to see inflation levels dropping then this could have a negative effect on the Euro, as this means that the ECB could consider stopping their Interest rate hikes.

USD

Inflation data was released last week, we saw a drop in the inflation levels by 0.1%, as the inflation drops more and more, there’s less chance that we’re going to keep seeing rate hikes if the Federal Reserve is on track to see their Inflation target met. We also had the Michigan Consumer Sentiment released at the back end of last week, this shows a picture of whether consumers are likely to spend money, with inflation levels going down, a high reading was expected but we saw a drop from 63.5 to 57.7. This week we have retails sales figures being released in the US, the last 2 results have we seen drops in the results, if we continue to see these drops then this could have a negative effect on the USD, but if we do see a rise in the retail sales from the previous results the this could have a bullish effect on the Dollar.