U.K. CBI Sales Rise Unexpectedly In April

Release Explanation: The CBI Realized Sales measures the consumer spending. It is a leading indicator of consumer spending because retailer and wholesaler sales are directly influenced by consumer buying levels. A reading above 0 indicates higher sales volume, below 0 indicates weaker sales.

TheLFB-Forex.com Trade Desk Thoughts: The CBI Realized sales index rose unexpectedly in April, on strong sales of groceries and footwear.

Responding to the CBI's latest Distributive Trades Survey, 44% of retailers said year-on-year sales volumes rose in the first half of April, while 41% said they were down. The resulting balance of +3% was widely unexpected by retailers and was the highest figure since January 2008 (+4%). Although this is a marked improvement on the heavy falls reported in March (a balance of -44%), retailers do not expect it to last into May, when they foresee declining sales again (-15%).

Forex Technical Reaction: “Despite the much better than expected read, the pound had a limited reaction to the report,” TheLFB-Forex.com Trade Team notes. Since the Tuesday session started, the pair has lost 50 pips because the market is being driven by risk-aversion

Written by TheLFB Trade Team, © 2007-2008 LFB Services, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.TheLFB-Forex.com

TheLFB Risk Disclaimer can be found at http://www.thelfb-forex.com/content.aspx?id=174.

The Copying, Broadcast, Republication or Redistribution of TheLFB Content is Expressly Prohibited Without the Prior Written Consent of LFB Services, LLC.