The minutes from the Bank of England meeting showed a unanimous vote to slash rates and this helped Sterling higher in the London trading, in an otherwise rather uneventful session.  Economic data out of the UK was less inspiring.  The Confederation of British Industry's monthly survey of UK manufacturers improved modestly in November, with total orders rising to a still paltry -38 from -39 in October.  The volume of expected output, however, plunged to -42 from -31 and the lowest since 1980.

So clearly the UK economy is far from out of the woods, but the proactive stance by the BOE looks to be helping prospects at least.  GBP/USD jumped more than 100 pips and was sitting near 1.5080 just ahead of the NY session.  We now look to the 1.5000 area to provide decent support, with a break below here suggesting accelerated weakness.

Risk trades remained heavy as global stock markets could not follow the US higher overnight.  Asia slipped a modest -0.8% while European bourses were down about -1.5% at last look.  JPY crosses were up just modestly in the session.  USD/JPY ticked about 10 pips higher towards the 96.80/90 zone while EUR/JPY was about 25 points higher near the 122.50/60 area.  US equity futures remain near the overnight lows and we would expect a sharp correction from yesterday's positive performance should see USD/JPY and EUR/JPY retest 96.00 and 121.50 respectively.

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (NY Session)   Prior   Estimate

  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT CA Int'l Securities Transactions SEP -C$0.730 -C$1.500
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT CA Leading Indicators MoM OCT -0.20% -0.20%
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US Consumer Price Index (MoM) OCT 0.00% -0.80%
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US CPI Ex Food & Energy (MoM) OCT 0.10% 0.20%
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US Consumer Price Index (YoY) OCT 4.90% 4.10%
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US CPI Ex Food & Energy (YoY) OCT 2.50% 2.40%
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US Housing Starts OCT 817K 780K
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US CPI Core Index SA OCT 216.956 - -
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US Building Permits OCT 786K 773K
  • 11/19/2008 13:30 GMT US Consumer Price Index NSA OCT 218.783 - -
  • 11/19/2008 13:35 GMT CA Bank of Canada Mark Carney Speaks in London
  • 11/19/2008 14:00 GMT US Fed's Kohn Speaks on Asset Prices at Cato Conference
  • 11/19/2008 15:35 GMT US DOE U.S. Crude Oil Inventories 14-Nov 22K - -
  • 11/19/2008 15:35 GMT US DOE U.S. Gasoline Inventories 14-Nov 1982K - -
  • 11/19/2008 15:35 GMT US DOE U.S. Distillate Inventory 14-Nov 516K - -
  • 11/19/2008 15:35 GMT US DOE U.S. Refinery Utilization 14-Nov -0.69% - -
  • 11/19/2008 18:30 GMT US Fed's Lacker Speaks at Conference on Subprime Crisis
  • 11/19/2008 18:40 GMT UK BOE's Gieve to Make Speech 19-Nov 
  • 11/19/2008 18:40 GMT UK BOE's Bean to deliver speech 19-Nov 
  • 11/19/2008 19:00 GMT US Minutes of Oct. 28-29 FOMC Meeting