US Dollar (USD) in strong recovery

According to analysts at Lloyds Bank Research this suggests that this is more likely a technical aspect of New Year trading reversing some of the moves seen at the end of last year, rather than a fundamentally driven story.

"The USD index is approaching the mid-December highs, but this is heavily weighted towards the EUR, and is more a function of EUR weakness than USD strength," say Lloyds.

For today, there is little US data of note, but the strength of the ISM and construction spending data yesterday should ensure that the USD remains well supported.

"For the USD index, the next major level should be the mid-December high of 80.82, although on a close basis the 100 day moving average at 80.63 should be significant, as the USD index has not closed above this since September 5th," say Lloyds.

Meanwhile, the GBP/USD fell lower after an unexpected slip in the UK’s manufacturing PMI yesterday.

While it is always disappointing to see a measure miss expectations, there is a lot to be happy with in the latest reading of UK manufacturing that fell to 57.3 last month.

December’s number was still the 2nd strongest since February 2011 with the production and new orders components hitting fresh record highs.

Jobs growth remained strong on the back of stronger demand from both domestic and export markets and should continue the belief that the UK’s employment picture should improve over the course of 2014.

Some concern may be raised from the increase in input prices that came as a result of supply difficulties and the likely cessation of downward pressure on energy prices. All in all, this report confirms what we knew for a long time; the UK economy has entered at 2014 at a very decent clip.