Euro extends rally against British Pound despite strong UK Retail Sales data

Pound Sterling Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of British Pound (GBP) against listed major currencies today. British Pound was the weakest against the Australian Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.11%	-0.05%	-0.05%	-0.06%	-0.16%	-0.15%	0.01%
EUR	0.11%		0.02%	0.02%	0.00%	-0.11%	-0.10%	0.07%
GBP	0.05%	-0.02%		0.00%	-0.02%	-0.12%	-0.09%	0.05%
JPY	0.05%	-0.02%	0.00%		-0.01%	-0.12%	-0.12%	0.04%
CAD	0.06%	0.00%	0.02%	0.00%		-0.12%	-0.12%	0.05%
AUD	0.16%	0.11%	0.12%	0.12%	0.12%		0.00%	0.14%
NZD	0.15%	0.10%	0.09%	0.12%	0.12%	-0.01%		0.16%
CHF	-0.01%	-0.07%	-0.05%	-0.04%	-0.05%	-0.14%	-0.16%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the British Pound from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent GBP (base)/USD (quote).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported that Retail Sales, a key measure of consumer spending, rose strongly by 1% Month-on-Month (MoM), while it was expected to decline by 0.3%. In May, the consumer spending measure grew by 1.2%.

On an annualized basis, the Retail Sales unexpectedly grew at a stronger pace of 4.2%. The consumer spending measure was estimated to have risen at a moderate pace of 2.3% from the previous reading of 3.5%, revised higher from 3.2%.

Signs of strong UK Retail Sales data will likely prompt Bank of England (BoE) interest rate hike expectations for the near term.

Meanwhile, investors brace for more volatility in the British currency as the preliminary S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for July is scheduled to be published at 08:30 GMT. The UK Composite PMI is expected to arrive slightly higher at 49.7 from 49.3 in June; however, a figure below 50.0 is considered a contraction in business activity.

Investors also await German and Eurozone flash PMI data for July, which will be published during the day.

On the monetary policy front, the European Central Bank (ECB) left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as expected, and warned that the energy shock will keep feeding into higher prices.

Economic Indicator

S&P Global Composite PMI

The Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), released on a monthly basis by S&P Global, is a leading indicator gauging private-business activity in UK for both the manufacturing and services sectors. The data is derived from surveys to senior executives. Each response is weighted according to the size of the company and its contribution to total manufacturing or services output accounted for by the sub-sector to which that company belongs. Survey responses reflect the change, if any, in the current month compared to the previous month and can anticipate changing trends in official data series such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), industrial production, employment and inflation.The index varies between 0 and 100, with levels of 50.0 signaling no change over the previous month. A reading above 50 indicates that the UK private economy is generally expanding, a bullish sign for the Pound Sterling (GBP). Meanwhile, a reading below 50 signals that activity is generally declining, which is seen as bearish for GBP.