US Consumer confidence has climbed to a five month high as improved labour market conditions, increasing wages and rising stock prices lift spending in the US.

“It’s a very good sign for spending in the months ahead,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. “We are seeing a little bit better numbers on the job front,” he said. Additionally, “the uncertainty we had approaching the elections is over and the improvement in the stock market suggests to a lot of Americans that maybe the economy is slowly improving.”

The concerns over Ireland’s debt situation and the possibility of defaulting on their debt has seen its further decline against most of the most actively traded currencies. Their GDP figures and Industrial production figures have proved to be a weaker than expected result today. Trader sentiment is clearly focusing on Euro selling and this will most probably continue into next week.

Next week sees a busy economic schedule with UK house prices, US retails sales, UK Retail Sales, UK inflation data, the BoE minutes. The UK’s October Inflation reports and retail sales data are likely to be the key events next week. Inflation is expected to remain high with retail sales expected to show a slight improvement.

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Luke Zorab

Torfx Currency Dealer
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