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UK Labor Data Surprises to the Upside

Last updated 2/11/2009 5:00 AM ET (GMT -5) 0 Comments - Add your comment

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Boris Schlossberg

Director of Currency Research, GFT

UK unemployment data proved more positive than expected printing at 73.8K versus forecasts of 88.5K new jobless claims. Average earnings also recorded an upside surprise coming in at 3.2% versus 3.0% expected.  

Although the news continues to demonstrate weakness in the UK economy with unemployment rate now standing at 6.3%, it nevertheless suggests that the contraction may have reached a climax at the end of 2008.  Recent series of UK economic releases have all shown surprising  resilience to the upside indicating that economy may be in the process of stabilizing in the wake of the worst collapse in consumer demand in more than 50 years.

Cable, which was selling off for most of the night ahead of the news, jumped like beach ball held under water rising 100 points in 15 minutes.  The unit has been very heavily pressured over the past few days by the dual forces of risk aversion and profit taking, but may have now found  near term support  at the 1.4300 figure and could continue its rebound especially on the EURGBP cross for the rest of the day.

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About The Author

Boris Schlossberg began his Wall Street trading career more than 20 years ago at Drexel Burhnam Lambert. There, he traded nearly every type of financial product on the market in the U.S., from equities and options to stock index futures and foreign exchange. His innate ability to analyze market information and use it to trade has helped him become an industry-recognized, “go to” trading professional.

These days, whenever the markets move, many organizations turn to Schlossberg for his take on the situation. He is a weekly contributor to CNBC's Squawk Box and a regular commentator for Bloomberg radio and television. His daily currency research is widely quoted by Reuters, Dow Jones and Agence France Presse newswires and appears in numerous newspapers worldwide. Schlossberg has written for publications like SFO magazine, Active Trader and Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities. He is also the author of Technical Analysis of the Currency Market and the co-author of Millionaire Traders: How Everyday People Are Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game with Kathy Lien. He joined GFT in 2008.