Forex Weekly Round Up 29 December 2014 – 2 January 2015

Here is our market summary for the week commencing 29 December 2014.

US initial jobless claims fell to 280,000 for the week commencing 15 December 2014, down 9,000 from the prior period. Rising demand is kick-starting businesses to hire more workers and lower fuel costs are encouraging consumers to spend more. Overall, in December, consumer confidence was up according to the latest Conference Board report. The index was expected to rise to 93.9 but instead rose to 92.6 from 91 in November

Greece faced snap elections amid a plummeting Euro. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he would recommend parliamentary elections are held on 25 January 2015, nearly 18 months before his term was due to end. The yield on the 10-year Greek bond increased to 9.8pc. The benchmark Athens Stock Exchange dropped four percent after falling 11pc earlier on the same day. The increasing bond yield is a sign of heightened weakness in opinion of the Greek economy.

Here in the UK, the pace of house price growth continued to soften. Growth was down to 7.2pc in December from 8.5pc in November. This is the fourth consecutive month where annual prices have moderated.