The British Pound continued its rally higher today, apparently correcting some of the losses made in the 600 point decline that started at the beginning of the year.
The GBP/USD rally began when UK Nationwide House Prices were reported 0.5% higher in January, which was better than expectations for a 0.2% rise in house prices. Cable traders brought the currency 40 points above the 1.5800 line, and the pair is trading around 1.5816 at the time of this writing. A 5-month low recently set at 1.5674 could now provide support, while a broken support at 1.5840 could now provide resistance.
In Switzerland, the SNB released its fourth quarter foreign currency holdings. The SNB said Euro holdings increased from 48% to 49%, while the Yen holdings dropped from 9% to 8%. US Dollar holdings were unchanged at 28%.
In Germany, economic releases told two different stories about the economy. Retail sales dropped by a record amount in December, while a record number of Germans found work in January. However, neither release had significant effect on Euro price action in Forex markets.
Also in the Euro-zone, Greece retail sales dropped 16.6% in November from a year earlier, which is better than the 17.1% decline in October.
Later today, the Canadian GDP for November will be released at 13:30 GMT, 0.2% economic growth is expected.
GBPUSD Daily: January 31, 2013
Chart created by Benjamin Spier using Marketscope 2.0
--- Written by Benjamin Spier, DailyFX Research. Feedback can be sent to bbspier@fxcm.com .
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