Here we are again with another round of currency news for you to read and digest. In our last report there was a definite two way split in the results we saw on the currency converter. For starters we had three good results to close out the week ending the 19th on, with increases against the US dollar, the Euro and the Hong Kong dollar. These amounted to 0.0014 against the US dollar, with around one and a half cents up against the Euro and 0.01 better against the Hong Kong dollar.
But as soon as we headed for New Zealand and Australia there was a very different picture in play. In the last few days of the week we lost out on a couple of cents against the New Zealand dollar and a cent against the Aussie dollar. So we were disappointed at that, especially after we had made such a good start against the other currencies.
So how will things progress this week? How did the first two days of trading go for the British pound? Would we manage to continue doing well against those first three currencies or were we simply lulled into a false sense of security? And what about the other two currencies; would we continue to lose ground there or was there better news in store?
Let’s see how well we could perform during the first two days of the week.
An overview of the currency markets for March 22nd – March 23rd 2010
Our starting point as always is with the British pound against the US dollar. The closing exchange rate we were left with at the end of last week was 1.5145. So could we get off to a good start or would we stumble at the first hurdle?
Unfortunately the answer was the latter of the two. By the end of that first day of trading the pound had fallen back to a much lower rate of 1.4984. That was a loss of over one and a half cents in just a single day.
Luckily the next day produced better news. By the end of Tuesday evening the pound had definitely pulled its socks up. It didn’t manage to regain the exchange rate we had started the week off with, but we did manage to climb back up to 1.5012. At least we were back over the $1.50 rate.
So with that in mind let’s move on to the Euro now. The final rate we were left with last time was 1.1179, but with the losses experienced against the US dollar would we end up with similar losses here as well?
The answer was yes. Monday evening produced a lower rate of 1.1123 for the pound, although at least it was not as low as we had seen against the US dollar. Tuesday slipped back a bit further, but luckily it only went down to 1.1104 all in all. This made our total losses for the first two days of the week to three quarters of a Euro cent. It could have been a lot worse.
Next up we shall move on to our third stop, the Hong Kong dollar. Our closing rate here last time around was 11.752, but after the good result we had ended with last week we had a nasty feeling we were in for another fall now.
And that did prove to be the case. The exchange rate the pound ended up with on Monday night was 11.629, so we had dropped back by 0.123 in a single day. We were expecting another drop the next day but in fact we did manage to pull things back in our favour once again, as we finished on 11.653. This did not replace all the losses of the previous day, but at least we were heading back in the right direction.
So with those three currencies taken care of, let’s now take a look at the two that we finished badly against last week – the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar. The New Zealand currency gave us a rate of 2.1291 to close on, and by Monday evening that had changed to 2.1362. This looked more promising, but then Tuesday redressed the balance a little and pushed us down to 2.1292.
It didn’t seem as if we were destined to have a very good start to the week, but we still have the Aussie dollar to look at. We were starting from an exchange rate of 1.6463 here, but then the pound crept up a little on Monday to 1.6479, before dropping back to 1.6370.
Let’s hope the remaining days of the week pan out to be a little better for the pound.
Notable events in the world of currency
US dollar climbs against Aussie dollar
The US dollar enjoyed a better start to the week anyway, climbing from a starting rate of 1.0870 to 1.0904 just two days later.
Australian dollar gets the better of New Zealand dollar
The Kiwi dollar started the week on 0.7732 but it had dropped to 0.7688 by Tuesday evening.
Canadian dollar dips against Aussie dollar
The Canadian dollar also suffered at the hands of the Australian dollar. It fell from 1.0776 to start the week on, and went down to 1.0700 on Tuesday night.
The ongoing battle for the pound to regain some strength was reported on in Reuters this week. There are plenty of stories about how the pound is battling at the moment; watch out for the latest currency news on the Reuters site as well as the Bloomberg site.
We can see that the pound is battling hard to try and get better exchange rates against various other major currencies. But in reality we must assume that the battle will go on for quite some time yet.
We will be back next week to report on how the rest of this week in the currency markets panned out. Make sure you join us then.
I noticed the pound has done badly against the Euro once again. I’m just waiting for the time when the Euro finally collapses and has the worst time out of all the currencies.
That might sound pessimistic but I think someone has to say it. I’ve read stories about Greece being in trouble and wanting to be bailed out and now it seems the Euro is said to be struggling by a lot of other people. So what is going on? Are we finally going to see the collapse of the European single currency? If we do, we Brits can then at least say we were right not to go into it. I never liked the idea – my only problem is that our currency PM might be mad enough to join it.
I take it you meant to say ‘our current PM’ instead of currency PM? With that said though I think you could have a point. I’m hoping we never get to see the pound disappear into the Euro, but you just never know do you?
I think the Euro is having the toughest time it has ever had lately. This must be a real test of how strong it really is as a currency that can rule over lots of different countries. I don’t think Greece has ever been in this kind of trouble before, and it will be interesting to see whether it can climb out of it or not. This is just the kind of problem the Euro sceptics were looking for all along.