Euro hampered by stalling GDP in some European nations

Concerns over peripheral European nations continue to hamper the single currency as GDP growth in Spain stalls and Ireland and Greece reveal a contraction in growth. Only Germany and France have announced GDP growth in the third quarter however, both figures are below the 0.8% announced by the UK recently.

The G20 meeting ended without reaching an agreement on concrete measures, leaving fears over the Eurozone crisis at the forefront of the markets minds. This nervousness in Europe led the European equity markets lower as well yesterday; the German DAX and UK FTSE closed the day flat while Portugal fell 0.5% and Ireland fell 1.6%.

Overnight the UK Nationwide consumer confidence figures for October reported another fall in confidence, again demonstrating increasing nervousness about the outlook for the economy and labour markets as government public spending cuts start to bite.

The data has taken some of the shine off Sterling, and marginally increased the likelihood of further quantitative easing, halting it's rise
following the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report.

With leaders of the G20 meeting in Seoul, and indications of protracted and tense negotiations being reported over the newswires, we could see substantial volatility in currency markets today.