Closed in NY at $1.6042 after rate recovered off late Europe pullback lows of $1.6014, settling around $1.6040 through the most part of the US afternoon. Rate eased to $1.6035 in early Asia before it picked up demand interest which pressured it up to retest Thursday’s high at $1.6048, extending the topside to $1.6049 but failed to break into the resistance area between $1.6050/60 ($1.6056 Nov27 high). A break of $1.6060/65 to open a move on toward $1.6080/85 ahead of $1.6100 (barrier interest?). End of month and a lot of talk of sterling sell interest to emerge, though this talk was around Thursday and didn’t dampen the underlying buoyant tone for the pound. Some talk of large RHS euro-sterling to be seen at the fixing, though some suggest this was transacted yesterday. Possible European sovereign demand interest in the cross but others see counter interest from a potential German-UK M&A (Siemens looking to buy a division of Invensys E2.2bln, as well as HSBC dividend FX fix for Monday). Cable demand $1.6015/00, $1.5985/80 and $1.5960/50. Euro-sterling opens firm, around stg0.8100. Key stg0.8115.
EasyForexNews Research Team