By FX Empire.com
On Wednesday, the pair rose after the minutes of the BoE’s rate decision showed that the voting to keep interest rate at 0.50% and expanding the size of the Asset Purchase Facility by 75 billion pounds to 275 billion pounds.
In general, the sentiment was fueled with optimism on Wednesday after a report released by the Guardian said that Germany and France had reached an agreement regarding the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) firepower to 2 trillions from the current 440 billion euros, enhancing demand on high-yielding currencies.
Still, the main focus is on the euro area ahead of the awaited European Council meeting on October 23 to details of the anti-crisis plan.
Moreover, data from the U.S. showed improvement as housing starts increased 15% in September from the prior 5.5% drop and median estimates of 3.3% surge, leading to more bullishness in the sentiment.
On Thursday, at 08:30 GMT, the UK will release retail sales for September; analysts are predicting a 0.1% decline in the reading with auto fuel compared with the 0.2% drop in August.
For the U.S., initial jobless claims for the week ended Oct. 14 and continuing claims for the week ended Oct. 8 will be available at 12:30 GMT. Leading indicators and Philadelphia Fed will be out at 14:00 GMT. At the same time, existing home sales report is predicted to show 2.5% drop in Sep. from the prior 7.7% surge.
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