Welcome back to another report on the state of the currency markets. As far as the British pound is concerned things have been going quite well recently, with strong results in many areas. But will this be the week when things start going in the opposite direction? Let’s find out.
An overview of the currency markets for May 7th – May 11th 2012
The last time we caught up with the pound against the US dollar it was worth 1.6173. On day one of the new week it lost a little ground and finished on 1.6160. The next couple of days saw further drops too, making us wonder whether this was going to be a bad week. The low point came on the 9th when the pound fell to 1.6087, but fortunately it perked up a little before Friday evening, resulting in a closing rate of 1.6113 – still lower than it had started with though.
Now let’s see whether the pound could continue its rise against the beleaguered Euro. The opening rate was 1.2316 and by the close of Monday this had jumped up to 1.2399. Better news came the next day as the pound reached 1.2400. Could it keep going higher? The answer was yes and in the end it reached a closing rate of 1.2448 on Friday night – another success for the pound against the European single currency.
Next up is the Hong Kong dollar, where we last left things on 12.553. The first three days of the week saw the dollar in charge however, and the pound finished Wednesday evening on 12.488 as a result. It bounced back to 12.548 the following day before slipping back once more to close out the week on 12.511.
We had raised the exchange rate to 2.0278 against the New Zealand dollar so it would be interesting to see if we could keep it above the two dollar mark. The early omens were good as the pound hit 2.0308 by the end of Monday. By Wednesday it was at an impressive 2.0509 and even though it fell back on Thursday it still closed out the week on 2.0510.
Finally we end with the Australian dollar as usual. Our opening rate here was 1.5801 and once again day one was rather good, sending us up to 1.5861 as a result. By Wednesday evening we had hit 1.6008 but just as we had seen in New Zealand there was a dip in store on Thursday. However there was good news in the end as the pound finished with a flourish on 1.6030.
Notable events in the world of currency
A steady rise against the Canadian dollar
Here there was good news as the pound rose from 1.5993 to hit a more impressive 1.6179 by the end of the week.
More good news against the Swiss franc
Here the pound did well also, rising from 1.4796 to reach a high of 1.4953 on the last day of the week.
But not such good news as far as the Chinese yuan is concerned
Here the pound started on 10.199 and ended up dropping slightly lower on 10.168.
News of the double dip recession was rife on some of the financial websites this week, including Bloomberg. This story – also told of the pound’s standing against the US dollar at that time.
So it was a pretty good week all in all for the pound, although there were one or two results that didn’t quite hit the mark. However the losses were minimal on the whole and we also saw that the Euro is still struggling to do any damage at all on the exchange rates.
In fact we would go so far as to say we could reasonably expect the pound to climb even higher against the Euro next week. Of course we shall be here with the exact figures to see whether it went one way or the other. We’ll be back then.
I’m glad to see the pound is doing well at the moment. It surprised me to be honest because I know we’re in a double dip recession so I thought things might go the other way. But at least we’re doing well against many currencies. I noticed today the pound has changed against the US dollar again too; I looked at it yesterday and it was around $1.61 against the dollar and today it has gone to $1.59. Not such good news if you’re buying the dollar but if you are being paid with it through PayPal it works out better!
I’m in the same position as Allison. I sometimes get paid from people in other countries in other currencies – mostly the US dollar – and when the pound gets weaker I get more cash because of the exchange rate. I tend to keep an eye on how things are moving and then time my withdrawals so I get as much cash as possible. You can’t always get it right but sometimes it will be an easy way to get a little bit more cash in your pocket. I suppose it works with other online payment processors too, in much the same way.