Here we are again with our next report on the state of the currency markets at the moment. Last time we saw the British pound had a struggle to keep up with the other major world currencies on the currency converter, so perhaps we shall see better results this time around.
An overview of the currency markets for October 4th – October 8th 2010
The last time we saw how the UK pound was doing against the US dollar, it finished the week on 1.5820. It started to perk up a tiny bit as the new week got underway, ending Monday evening on 1.5832. It reached a week long high of 1.5972 on Thursday evening but unfortunately it dipped back down on Friday to close out the week on 1.5854. It was still a small improvement however.
Next up we have the Euro to contend with, where we last left things on 1.1526. We finished Monday night on 1.1552 but that was about as good as it got for the whole week. From then on things went downhill as the Euro proved it was the stronger of the two currencies. Friday night’s closing figure was 1.1427.
The pound last grabbed a rate of 12.276 against the Hong Kong dollar, so could it do any better here? The answer seemed to be yes as the first two days saw steady increases until the pound reached 12.332. A small drop gave way to another rise on Thursday as the pound hit 12.385, before finishing on a somewhat disappointing 12.300 on Friday night.
The pound didn’t do very well against the New Zealand dollar last week, ending on a feeble 2.1380 on Friday night. But once again it seemed as if we were on the back foot, as we fell back on Monday before climbing back to 2.1362 on Tuesday. It was downhill from then on though, dropping to a poor 2.1088 on Thursday night before finally crawling back to a mediocre 2.1252 on Friday. This wasn’t a good time for the pound, clearly.
Our final stop for the week is the Aussie dollar, where we last left the pound on 1.6267. We did get a reasonable start to the new week though, as we pushed up to 1.6350 on Monday and an impressive 1.6543 on Tuesday. But could we keep it up?
The answer was no as we fell back to 1.6297 the very next day. Thursday saw a woeful rate of 1.6157 before we finished the week slightly better off on 1.6286. This was not a good week – once again – for the pound.
Notable events in the world of currency
The Kiwi dollar does slightly better against the Aussie dollar
This currency had a rough time last time as well, but last week it managed to climb from 0.7608 to 0.7663.
The Canadian dollar is beaten by the stronger Swiss franc
Here the exchange rate went from 0.9530 on Sunday night to 0.9472 by the end of the week. It indicated that the Swiss franc was slightly better than the Canadian dollar as far as this head to head was concerned.
The Euro pushes hard against the US dollar
Here we saw the Euro move from 1.3726 to 1.3874 over the course of the week, as the dollar could do little to stop it.
As usual there was a wealth of Forex news going on last week. One particular headline pointed to the struggles the US dollar has been experiencing lately. You can read the story at Reuters. It shows that it isn’t just the pound that has been struggling against other major currencies of late.
So there we have it for another week. Perhaps next week the British pound will be doing better, but it remains to be seen. We shall be here to reveal the answers as always.
Well I can’t say I’m surprised by the bad news concerning the pound. It’s always doom and gloom at present but what else are you supposed to report when the pound doesn’t have any ‘oomph’ in it?
Honestly, it’s getting depressing and I’d rather see better results if at all possible. Couldn’t we just end the year on a really positive note for the pound? Wouldn’t it be better to just start fighting back and doing something – anything – that would make a difference?
I understand how the above commenter feels about it all being negative for the pound at the moment. But it’s not as easy as just being more positive and getting better results. Yes we would all like to see better results but if it was that easy we wouldn’t be in the state we are in would we? Anyway I think everyone is in the same boat at the moment – it just depends on how much it is rocking!