Welcome back to a new look currency report, which from now on will be issued twice weekly instead of once a week. This report will focus on the changes which took place over Monday and Tuesday of this week; next Monday’s report will then concentrate on what happened between Wednesday and Friday.
But first of all let’s see how last week’s report finished up and what rates we had on the currency converter back then. In fact it was a poor showing for the British pound as it lost out against four out of the five main currencies.
It fell behind by some four and a half cents against the US dollar, and by around one cent against the Euro. Elsewhere it dropped a total of 0.334 against the Hong Kong dollar and a cent against the New Zealand dollar. The only good result was against the Australian dollar, where it managed to add on 0.0071 in total.
So could the pound manage to have a better start to the week this time? Remember we are only looking at the first two days of trading now, so let’s see how the pound fared.
An overview of the currency markets for February 8th – February 9th 2010
So let’s move over to the US dollar and see whether the pound could do better this time. The starting rate here was 1.5678, and if we were hoping for a good start to the week we didn’t get it. It could have been worse though as the exchange rate fell to just 1.5608.
Tuesday saw the pound in better form though, even if only by a small amount. By the end of the day the pound was on 1.5629, having dropped a total of half a cent over these first two days of the week. But will it manage to claw that back through the second half of the week?
Onto the Euro now and we have a starting rate of 1.1451 here. But like it had done against the dollar the pound couldn’t start well here either. Monday evening saw a closing rate of 1.1414 and by Tuesday that had dropped even further to 1.1358. This made a total loss of nearly one Euro cent in just two days.
Moving swiftly on the Hong Kong dollar left us on 12.183 after a significant loss last time around. And once again Monday didn’t bode well for the rest of the week ahead. We finished up on 12.129 on Monday night and while Tuesday was slightly better with an improved exchange rate of 12.142, we didn’t feel too positive about finishing with a flourish by the end of the week.
So let’s see how things started against the New Zealand dollar now. Last time we left the pound claiming 2.2744 after losing nearly a cent overall, so we were hoping that at least we could start more positively here.
It simply wasn’t to be though because by Monday night the exchange rate had fallen slightly to 2.2730. There was worse news in store on Tuesday night however as the pound dropped like a stone to land on 2.2577. This left us nursing a loss of 0.0167 so far.
So the week did not start well for the pound, and while we have three trading days left to go, anything could happen in that time. We will report back on the remaining three days next Monday. We do sometimes see the pound dipping midweek only to save itself and make good headway in the second half. But at the moment things don’t seem very positive for the pound. Let’s hope we are wrong, but we doubt we will see some huge differences in a positive sense in the remaining three days left to us this time around.
Notable events in the world of currency
The Euro has a rocky time against the New Zealand dollar
As the pound was struggling during the early part of the week, so other currencies were having a tough time as well. One good example of this was the Euro. Its starting rate for the week was 1.9862, but by the time Monday night came things were looking rather better on 1.9914. Unfortunately it wasn’t able to hold on to that increase and by Tuesday night it had dropped to 1.9877.
Australian dollar versus US dollar
The Australian dollar has had a good start to the week so far. From a starting point of 0.8653, it managed to climb a short distance to 0.8674 by Monday night. But there was more to come – and better news as well. Tuesday saw the rate climb higher to 0.8748, leaving us wondering whether it could continue this climb through the remainder of the week.
A slow climb for the Canadian dollar against the US dollar
It wasn’t much to speak of but the Canadian dollar did make a good start to the week from its initial rate of 0.9314. After one day of trading it had managed to increase that to 0.9340. And by the time the following day was over it was on 0.9373. If it carries on like this, what will it achieve by the end of the week?
News stories issued in the first half of this week indicated the troubled times the pound is currently sailing through. This story from the Reuters website tells the story of how the prospect of a forthcoming election is possibly hurting the pound’s ability to fight back.
So it will be interesting to see whether the pound can recover in the latter half of this week. Although on the evidence given it seems as if any recovery by the British pound will take much longer than just two or three days. We may see a temporary bounce back, but perhaps we will have to wait until the uncertainty over the election is resolved – and that won’t happen for some time yet.
We’ll see you soon with the next report.
I love the new twice weekly report – it’s a great improvement to the site. I always liked the original once a week format but I think this is better. Firstly you don’t have to wait as long to see what happens next, but also you have more reasons to keep coming back!
The best bit is that you have managed to retain the same layout you had before. I always liked that but when I read you were going to twice a week and splitting it up I didn’t think it would work. I’ve never been more pleased to be proved wrong.
Hmm I’m not too sure about the new twice weekly format myself. I liked the old one better because you had one whole week of data in one full report. This new one seems too short and bitty.
It’s early days yet though so maybe I will get used to it. I don’t dislike it; it just doesn’t sit right with me at the moment. I just start getting into it and then it cuts off. Two days worth of data isn’t enough. The three day one is okay but I still prefer all five days in one report.