GBP/USD Weekly Forecast – 22 May – 26 May

Events that marked the week:

Tuesday's session brought UK CPI figures. The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs 12-month inflation rate was 2.6% in April 2017, up from 2.3% in March. The rate has been steadily increasing following a period of relatively low inflation in 2015 and is at its highest since June 2013. Air fares were the main contributors to the increase in the rate in April 2017, although this balanced out a downward effect of similar magnitude in March 2017 and is due to Easter falling later than last year.

AUD/USD Weekly Forecast – 22 May – 26 May

Events that marked the week:

There were no data releases from Australia on Monday, but from China Industrial Production figures were published. Broad measures of Chinese economic output slowed in April, although the underlying trend continued to show stability in the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial production, a broad measure of factory output, rose 6.5% in April from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics reported in Beijing. That was down from a multi-year high of 7.6% in March.

USD - Major events in the week ahead

Events that marked the week:

On Monday Empire State Manufacturing Index figures were released. Business activity leveled off in New York State, according to firms responding to the May 2017 Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The headline general business conditions index fell six points to -1.0. The new orders index dropped to -4.4, suggesting a small decline in orders, and the shipments index edged down to 10.6, indicating that shipments increased at a slightly slower pace than in April.

EUR/USD Weekly Forecast – 15 May – 19 May

Events that marked the week:

Tuesday's session was marked by German Industrial Production figures. In March 2017, production in industry was down by 0.4% from the previous month on a price, seasonally and working day adjusted basis according to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). In February 2017, the corrected figure shows an increase of 1.8% (primary +2.2%) from January 2017. In March 2017, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 0.5%. Within industry, the production of capital goods decreased by 1.2%.

Friday's session brought German Prelim GDP data from Eurozone. The German economy continues to grow. In the first quarter of 2017, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.6% on the fourth quarter of 2016 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that, in the second half of the previous year, the GDP grew a little more moderately (+0.2% in the third and +0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2016).

This week markets will be looking at:

Flash GDP (Tuesday 11:00)

German ZEW Economic Sentiment/ZEW Economic Sentiment (Tuesday 11:00)