What's bad news for the UK is good news for Europe
Cars drove exports higher and cars to Europe were at their highest ever of £1.1bn. Exports to Europe in general posted the biggest jump since July 2013. Imports from Europe were also higher. That's good news for both the UK and Europe as it shows decent activity between us.
I can't pick out why imports were revised so high. The ONS has that hidden somewhere in the many pages and spreadsheets it produces for this data. It's bugging me though.
Overall we saw a bigger trade deficit as exports fell elsewhere and non- EU imports fell. That's probably to be expected given the general global outlook
Although the numbers are bad in trade and construction, the pick up in activity, especially from Europe is encouraging. The French IP data was great and that's what we want to see from Europe, let's hope it lasts
Being our biggest trading partner any increase in trade is going to be beneficial for the UK but the caveat is that the strength of the pound will become more of a problem
For the pound the data will be seen as another sign that the economy is slowing further and once again that may temper further gains today. It just depends on traders appetite to push it higher
1.5380 is the 50.0 fib of the Sep 18th drop and the broken May 2010 support line sits just above at 1.5395
1.5330 is the nearest support, then 1.5300
GBPUSD H4 chart
