Interest Rates

If there is an uncertainty in the market in terms of interest rates, then any developments regarding interest rates can have a direct affect on the currency markets.

Generally, when a country raises its interest rates, the country's currency will strengthen in relation to other currencies as assets are shifted to gain a higher return. Interest rates hikes, however, are usually not good news for stock markets. This is due to the fact that many investors will withdraw money from a country's stock market when there is a hike of interest rates, causing the country's currency to weaken.

Knowing which effect prevails can be tricky, but usually there is an agreement among the field as to what the interest rate move will do. PPI, CPI, and GDP have proven to be the indicators with the biggest impact. The timing of interest rate moves is usually known in advance. It is generally known that these moves take place after regular meetings of the BOE, FED, ECB, BOJ, and other central banks.

ECONOMIC CALENDARS
DATE	TIME	COUNTRY	EVENT	FORECAST	PREVIOUS
07/21/08	3:15am	Switzerland	PPI m/m	0.4%	1.2%
07/21/08	4:45am	United Kingdom	BOE Governor King Speaks
	8:30am	Canada	Core Retail Sales m/m	0.8%	1.1%
	9:30pm	Australia	CPI q/q	1.2	1.3%
07/23/08	4:30am	United Kingdom	MPC Meeting Minutes	8-1 hld	8-1 hld
	7:00am	Canada	Core CPI m/m	0.2%	0.3%
	5:00pm	New Zealand	Monetary Policy Statement
	5:00pm	New Zealand	Official Cash Rate	8.25%	8.25%
07/24/08	4:00am	Eurozone	German Ifo Business Climate Index	100.2	101.3
	4:30am	United Kingdom	Retail Sales m/m	-2.5%	3.5%
	10:00am	United States	Existing Home Sales	4.93M	4.99M
07/25/08	4:30am	United Kingdom	Prelim GDP q/q	0.2%	0.3%
	8:30am	United States	Core Durable Goods Orders m/m	-0.2%	-0.9%
	10:00am	United States	New Home Sales	508K	512K

LATEST MARKET UPDATES	CURRENCY OUTLOOK

NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS

FOREX BROKERS

FX TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

MARKET INSIGHTS