The British pound suffered today from the massive decline of the release of mortgage approvals which reached to 58.000 in April from 63.000 in March which is nearly the half of last year number of April which was 113.000 showing how much are the bad conditions of the housing market of UK currently which can continue as this current dovish market sentiment and sluggish growth expectation amid BOE inability to ease fearing of the current high inflation threats. The British pound can be under the pressure of these stagflation risks as there are no signs of improvement yet. The CIPS May manufacturing PMI came just at 50.0 not in the expansion territory or the contraction territory but lower than April number which was 51.
 
 In this same time, the comments come hawkish worried about inflation from the ECB members after May HICP flash release which soared to 3.6% again after decreasing to 3.3% in April. Trichet has commented today that Price rises are posing real problem and we must ensure price stability in EU. EU PMI of May came today at 50.6 to cool its recent declines from 52 in March to 50.7 in April which put weights on the single currency recently.
 
 We wait today for the release of US May ISM Manufacturing index which is expected to 49 from 48.6 in April. Chicago PMI has got better from 48.3 in April to 49.1 in May but it is still in the contracting territory.
 
 Best Wishes
 
 FX consultant
 Walid Salah El din
 E-mail: mail@fx-recommends.com