British Pound Live on Thursday the 14th: Sterling in strong recovery versus the euro

Welcome to another day's live coverage of the performance of the UK currency. The big economic data events of the week have passed by and their strong showing should provide sterling with support as we head into the end of the week. However, we should expect trading to be largely technical and outside-orientated in nature so uncertainty is certainly not in short supply.

16:00: Latest rates

 GBP/EUR has put in a strong recovery, it is 0.33 pct higher at 1.1797.
GBP/USD is just 0.03 pct in the red at 1.5676.
GBP/AUD is 1.13 pct in the red at 1.6350.
GBP/NZD is 0.34 pct lower at 1.9565.

NB: The above are wholesale quotes; your bank will affix their own discretionary spread to the numbers. However, an independent FX provider will guarantee to beat your bank's offer, thus delivering you more currency. Please learn more here. 

15:55: Sterling predicted to remain well supported

Commonwealth Foreign Exchange Inc. have just told their clients:

"Sterling rose to a four-month peak against the dollar after a batch of upbeat economic data dashed expectations for further easing by the Bank of England.  Last week’s strong construction, manufacturing and services PMI’s as well as this week’s drop in the U.K.’s claimant count have seriously reduced the risk of near-term easing and should keep sterling well supported against the dollar."

14:15: Euro weakens as stocks recovery

 Interesting times for the euro. It is certainly behaving as a safe-haven currency - when stocks were in the red, the euro was higher, now that stocks are recovering, the euro has sold off.

This has aided a recovery in the pound / euro exchange rate which is now 0.2 pct up at 1.1782.

10:40: Why is the pound getting hit by the euro?

"However, for now the global repositioning/unwinding of carry trades is more favourable for the euro than for sterling," says Piet Lammens at KBC Markets. Read more on today's GBP-EUR under-performance.

9:08: Why are markets so deep in the red?

Markets are in the red and this may explain why we are seeing such a poor performance by GBP today. Ishaq Siddiqi at ETX Capital explains:

"A rout across global stock markets on heightened fears that global central banks will halt/moderate liquidity measures forces investors to dump risky assets. US stocks fell overnight on these worries and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index slumped 6.4% into bear-market territory, pushing the yen higher against the US dollar."

8:10: In early trade in London we see sterling under pressure

The British pound sterling (Currency:GBP) is under pressure this morning:

The pound to euro exchange rate is 0.32 pct lower at 1.1721.
The pound to US dollar exchange rate is 0.11 pct down at 1.5664.
The pound to Australian dollar exchange rate is 0.13 pct higher at 1.6557.

8:08: Sterling underpinned by positive data

So what happened yesterday? The key takeaways from Pound Sterling Live are:

1) UK employment data beat expectations; this saw sterling head higher
2) In their June exchange rate forecast note Lloyds saw a higher GBP-EUR and lower GBP-USD heading into the year end.
3) The UK currency is currently witnessing some of its highest levels against a number of currency majors