Here we are again with another look at what has been happening in the currency markets over the last couple of days. Our previous report focused on the last three days of the week ending the 26th March, so now we are thrusting forward into this week and looking at what happened on Monday and Tuesday.
But how are we catching up with the pound after last week’s performance? We had seen a poor finish to the week on Friday after losing out on 0.0182 cents to the US dollar. Elsewhere we barely managed a move against the Euro, with a marginal increase of 0.0002 over the last three days of the week. It could hardly be called an increase worth celebrating but at least it wasn’t a loss.
The British pound was down against the Hong Kong dollar though by 0.142, and we also lost over two cents against the New Zealand dollar. Luckily though, if that is the right word, we did manage to gain a total of 0.0042 against the Australian dollar. This turned out to be the best result of the whole week.
So from there let’s see how this new week got underway.
An overview of the currency markets for March 29th – March 30th 2010
Let’s begin at our first stop with the US dollar. Last time we left the pound on an exchange rate of 1.4830 on the currency converter. Could we finally start to improve on that this week, or was there more bad news in store?
If we were looking for the best possible start we certainly got it, because by Monday night the exchange rate had improved considerably to 1.4977. However with that said things got better still the following day because the rate shot up again, this time until 1.5092. So that provided us with a healthy start to the week.
But could we achieve the same against the Euro as well? Here we were starting with a rate of 1.1106, and although there wasn’t much of a difference the next day we did manage to climb up to 1.1118. And things improved still further by Tuesday evening with a rate of 1.1194 by the close of play. That at least gave us confidence that we could look forward to a better second half of the week as well.
Our third stop as always is the Hong Kong dollar. The rate we were left with at the end of the previous week was 11.511, having lost out on 0.142 over those last three days. Could we improve on that now?
Monday was certainly looking good as the closing rate for the day was a much healthier 11.629. But there was more good news to come by Tuesday evening, because that gave us a rate of 11.718 to close on. This meant we had gained a total of 0.207 over two days, which more than got back the losses of the previous week.
Moving on swiftly now, let’s see whether we could improve on the 2.1073 exchange rate we closed with against the New Zealand dollar last time around. We’ve had three good results out of three so far, so two more would be extremely good.
And once again we weren’t disappointed as the British pound crept up to 2.1115 by the time Monday’s trading was over. If that wasn’t enough, we managed another good result the following day as well, leaving the pound on 2.1185 at the close of play. This gave us another increase to celebrate, this time of a little over a cent.
One more stop to go then, which this time is Australia. Last time we left the week with an exchange rate of 1.6412, having gained nearly half a cent in those last few days. But here to start the week we would have a very different story indeed. The rate at the end of Monday evening had dropped slightly to 1.6382, although by the close of play on Tuesday it had gained a little more and settled on 1.6399.
So this turned out to be the only negative result of the week, as we had improved our standing against every other currency on our list. Not a bad start to the week all in all – let’s just hope we can continue in the same vein.
Notable events in the world of currency
US dollar tumbles against the Canadian dollar
The US dollar was not destined to have a good start to the week, falling from a starting rate of 1.0275 on Monday morning to a lower rate of 1.0184 by Tuesday night. Will this pattern be one that is destined to continue through the rest of the week?
Australian dollar gets the better of the New Zealand dollar
These two currencies are always worth looking at in a head to head. From a starting rate of 1.2840 for the week, the Aussie dollar made a good start and had climbed up to 1.2918 by Tuesday evening.
The Swiss franc takes on the Indian currency
The Indian rupee didn’t get off to a good start against the Swiss franc. The franc started on 42.302 and by Tuesday evening at the close of play it had improved further to 42.461, after a brief drop on Monday during the day.
We all have our own opinions about the Euro. But it would appear that some people who live in countries that have the Euro still don’t like using it. Read this story from the BBC website to find out more. It really makes for a fascinating read.
So there we are with a more positive report to impart for once. It may not have been five out of five good results, but four out of five is better than we have seen in quite a long time. Let’s hope we can continue through the remaining three days of trading this week to make a resounding end to the week as well.
Well, four out of five good results for the week. I can remember a time when that made me feel really positive for the future of the pound. But now I just wonder how long the good news will last before the exchange rates drop like a stone again.
I know things got down to where the pound was worth about $1.30 or $1.40 US dollars or something, and I know it has gone back up again since then. But it seems to have been stuck at this current level for ages now, and nothing seems good enough to get it back into any kind of order.
We can hope for better as the weeks go on, but it’s hard to see it actually happening.