Bax1

After a quiet night in the Foreign Exchange markets in Asian trading, the markets opened today with some sell pressure on the pound particularly against the USD. The pound slipped from a touch over 1.48 down to 1.4760. This could be attributed to weaker consumer confidence data released last night- the May index fell sharply by 10 points from April to 65.

However the prospect of another Mervyn King speech tonight at Mansion House could be more on the button, spooking the sterling bulls. In the recent past, whenever Mervyn king has made a public address sterling has always suffered due to his negative but admittedly realistic sentiment on the UK economy. Data already released this morning focused on the UK jobless sector, the data was actually not too bad with May jobless claims in at -30,900 better than the forecasted -20,000. In addition the claimant count rate came in at 4.6% and the unemployment rate at 7.9%, again slightly better than forecasts at 4.7% and 8% respectively. A muted response to this morning’s data for the pound as the market is well aware that unemployment levels should suffer following the emergency budget next week. Look for the pound to remain subdued today ahead of Mr. Kings address later- in fact I would not expect any significant movement in the pound until after Tuesday’s budget.

The surprise in the international markets is the recent fight back of the euro which pushed to 1.2353 yesterday against the USD. This is despite further pressure in the bond markets- this morning we have seen the Spanish/German 10 year government bond yield widen to 218bps, this is a lifetime high and Portuguese/German equivalent widened to 312bps. The move higher for the euro despite the negatives looks reflective of a short squeeze in the markets to shake up what was a market biased on shorting the euro. This is a relief rally for international payments and transfers which I would not expect to be sustained especially if the bond markets continue to deteriorate. On top of this there is also news of disagreement to stress testing of the European banking sector with Spain in favour and Germany against, which raises the question why are the Germans so against the idea?

The USD has unwound some of its recent gains following a week with little excitement (like the World Cup so far) and no huge surprises leading to gradual appetite coming back into the frame. Later today from the US, the pick of which is the Producer Price Index, Industrial production and a speech from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.

Keep an eye on the Forex with an online currency converter till the budget.

The Epson Stylus SX218 is a shiny black and grey multifunction inkjet printer that offers basic facilities with a modest price tag. Prices tags don’t always tell the whole story when it comes to budget inkjet printer however, the real cost will be found in the price of the replacement printer cartridges. At around £30 a set, the Epson SX218 ink cartridges are reasonably good value for money compared to inks for some of the other budget inkjets on the market, but the real value for money is to be found in the compatible Epson ink cartridges that are widely available for the SX218. Not only does the SX218 offer good running costs but it also offers a long list of features including PC-free printing from memory cards and digital cameras as well PC-free copying. The built-in A4 scanner capable of scanning a variety of documents including text documents, graphics and even high resolution photographs, for all of which it produces excellent results. Although the scanning capabilities of the SX218 are impressive it not the SX218’s most impressive feature this is reserved for its print quality. Thanks to it class leading 5760 x 1440dpi resolution the SX218 produces superb text documents and photos that are full of bright and vibrant colours. All these features are very easy to easy and the SX218 has be designed to be as easy to use as possible, there is a simple control panel on the left hand side of the machine which controls the copying functions. In summary the Stylus SX218 would best suit someone looking for good value for money in terms of print quality and functionality.