It’s time to see what was happening in the currency markets for the last complete week before Christmas. Next week we shall see what happened in the run up to Christmas Eve, but before we get there will the exchange rates prove to be good for the pound on the currency converter this time around?
An overview of the currency markets for December 13th – December 17th 2010
Last time we had a strong week against the US dollar, achieving a rate of 1.5820 by the close of play. A slight dip to 1.5723 kicked the week off before we recovered to 1.5831 the next day.
But that was as good as things would get for the entire week. As it turned out the pound then dropped back considerably and finished around 1.5611 as the week came to an end. So it wasn’t the best start by a long shot.
Let’s see whether we could achieve a little better against the Euro now. Last time we finished on 1.1945, having had another successful performance. But here again it seemed as if we had only got a falling rate to look at. From day one of the new week we lost ground and we couldn’t seem to do anything to pick it back up again. This is why we ended up on 1.1793 by the time all was said and done.
So with two poor results already announced, let’s see whether we could do anything different when the Hong Kong dollar came into play. Here we achieved 12.299 last week, and even though we topped that by reaching 12.306 on the 14th, we were soon going lower once again and finishing on 12.139. This was turning into a disappointing week – a total mirror image of the previous week.
The New Zealand dollar was pushed back last time as the pound flourished on 2.1057. But once again it was followed by disappointment – after just one day we’d slipped back to 2.0894. But there was better news here because by the time the end of the week was beckoning we had soared back up to 2.1134. Here at least we had a reasonable result.
Finally we saw a reasonable result against the Aussie dollar last time as well, as we achieved a rate of 1.6005 by the close of play. But as we may have guessed this would be followed by a flat week and we finished up with the lower rate of 1.5770 in the end.
Notable events in the world of currency
The pound drops against the Canadian dollar
As we might have expected we had a bad time here too. We fell from 1.5972 to 1.5681 over the course of those few days.
Another steep drop against the Swiss franc
Here again we fell from 1.5526 to 1.5153 as the British pound enjoyed a far from perfect week.
Another drop against the Chinese currency
Finally we can unfortunately make it three for three, as the pound fell from 10.529 to 10.402 and gave us more pause for thought.
You should register to get access to the FT.com website as there are some eye opening stories from the financial area on there. This one – tells how the British pound is having a tough time of it at the moment. The economic fears surrounding the country have largely led to its failing performance in recent days, which has only been compounded by wintry weather keeping many away from spending in the shops. This is despite it being the busiest period before Christmas finally arrives.
We can see that this has been a far from successful week for the pound. But as we move through the festive break perhaps we can look to the New Year to provide a more positive outlook? We can only hope – and of course wait and see.