Currencies remain in a tight range this morning as the market awaits key data from the US this afternoon. The dollar edged slightly higher last night after the US trade deficit surprisingly narrowed and weekly jobless claims came in better than expected, but a lacklustre session on Wall St could not support the greenback's move. At 0845, the euro was trading at USD1.0776, while it was worth 68.65p sterling, almost unchanged in the past 24 hours. According to analysts, with the main thrust of the Iraq war now appearing to be complete, market attention is re-focusing on the fundamental outlook and today's data will be closely watched.
"Today's US retail sales and consumer sentiment data will be important in setting the dollar's tone heading into the weekend," said Geraldine Concagh, senior economist at AIB Treasury. She added that the University of Michgan sentiment data has some scope to deliver an upward surprise on market consensus for a 78.1 reading, given that the survey was compiled after good news from the Iraq war started flowing in. However, with concern about the economy remaining high, dollar gains against the euro and sterling may be limited. //www.fxcentre.com