Here we are again with another set of results to share with you. Will the currency converter reveal some good news for the British pound this week, or will it be bad news instead?
An overview of the currency markets for March 14th – March 18th 2011
The pound dipped against the US dollar last time, leaving us on 1.5992 in the process. But could we do better this time?
We certainly perked things up on the first day of the new week, finishing the day on 1.6108 in the process. The following day then saw a drop back to 1.6006, so it looked doubtful as to how the rest of the week would shape up. It was certainly a little uncertain midweek but by the time Friday night approached the pound was back up to 1.6170.
A slight drop against the Euro last week led to a closing rate of 1.1611. But we didn’t have the same good news to start with here, and we fell back to 1.1548 as a result on Monday evening. In fact there was little to celebrate here all week, as the Euro took firm control and pushed the pound back down to 1.1444 by the close of play on Friday.
Let’s move on to the Hong Kong dollar now, where we left things on 12.461 previously. We did well on day one, reaching 12.552 in the process. But then we fell back to 12.481. Indeed it was something of a topsy turvy week and finally we finished up on 12.615. At least this was better than the rate we had started off with.
Next up we have the New Zealand dollar. Here we were starting with 2.1688 after a bad run of luck the previous week. Things were looking up though as we successfully reached 2.1847 on Monday night and 2.2003 the night after. We were making up for the losses of the previous week? It certainly seemed as if we were, because by the close of play on Friday night we had soared up to 2.2240.
Our last stop is the Australian dollar and last time we finished on 1.5986. We saw very little difference here on Monday but by Tuesday night we were on 1.6261. This was clearly a great week in this part of the world for the pound, and finally we managed to achieve a rate of 1.6296 on Friday evening.
Notable events in the world of currency
US dollar loses ground against the Euro
Bad news hit the headlines here as the US dollar fell from 0.7260 to 0.7077 over the course of a week.
Things stay the same against the Japanese yen
The British pound didn’t manage much traction against the yen last week, moving from 131.490 to 131.242 after a midweek dip.
Canadian dollar drops against Indian currency
There was a drop here as the Canadian dollar went from 46.195 to 45.801 over the course of the week.
Of course the news was full of reports about the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear concerns last week. This was borne out by some of the financial and currency related stories we read as well.
This one from the FT.com website spoke of the consequences of the yen going so high after the tragedy. The article explained how actions by some of the world’s biggest and most well off nations led to a mass sell off of the currency.
It may seem odd to focus on the state of the yen after everything that has occurred over the past ten days or so. But it remains a fact of life that the yen is part of Japan and as such it will be just as prone to being affected by what has happened as anything else.
We shall be back to report on the latest consequences of movements on the currency markets very soon, so stay tuned.
The whole tsunami and earthquake event was terrible to watch and quite upsetting. I didn’t really think about it affecting the currency markets, but although it seems irrelevant in a way I suppose it might affect the way that people react to the cost of rebuilding Japan. They certainly have a major task ahead of them in many ways. It will be shocking to go through and I still can’t believe the pictures on the news.