Pound Sterling

Sentiment has decidedly soured towards the Pound today thanks to the news that Tata Steel will be cutting 1,170 jobs and mothballing several facilities from its UK operations. As this follows up the closure of the Redcar steelworks and lapse of steel products group Caparo Industries into administration the current picture of the domestic industry does not appear optimistic. With this additional pressure on the local economy the odds of a near-term move on interest rates from the Bank of England (BoE) have diminished further.

Euro

The single currency was weighed down this morning by the release of the German Producer Prices figure for August, which showed a more severe slump than expected at -2.1% rather than -1.8%. However, as traders remain confident that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not opt to loosen monetary policy at this week’s meeting it was not long before the Euro began to gain in strength once more.

US Dollar

Pundits have continued to debate the odds of a 2015 interest rate hike from the Fed on Tuesday, with the prospect of a December take-off still mixed as US Building Permits were revealed to have unexpectedly contracted by -5.0% on the month. As indications continue to suggest that the world’s largest economy is slowing this has left the fortunes of the ‘Greenback’ somewhat limited today.

Australian Dollar

Overnight the October meeting minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) were published, showing that policymakers remain confident in the robustness of the domestic economy in spite of more negative global headwinds. Iterating that the central bank does not believe an interest rate cut to be appropriate at this juncture, comments also indicated that the Australian economy is continuing to successfully transition into a post-mining state which will somewhat insulate the nation in future from commodity downturns.

New Zealand Dollar

After beginning the day on relatively positive footing the ‘Kiwi’ has seen a substantial slump across the board this afternoon, likely due to caution ahead of this evening’s GlobalDairyTrade auction. Should milk powder prices show a sustained improvement, however, the South Pacific currency could well reverse this trend overnight to retake lost ground.

Canadian Dollar

Although the initial market response to the election victory of the Liberal Party the ‘Loonie’ has since seen a rise in demand as investors watch the new government with some measure of optimism. Oil has also been staging a rally this afternoon, as traders position themselves in advance of the latest US stockpile reading.