Welcome back to another fact packed report on the state of the currency markets at the moment. This time we will be looking to see how the remaining three days of last week panned out. The last time we saw the pound it was down against four out of the five currencies we look at on the currency converter each time.
There was a loss of well over a cent against the US dollar, but at least we remained above the $1.50 mark with an exchange rate of $1.5012. Elsewhere we were down by three quarters of a cent to 1.1104 against the Euro, so that was another disappointment for the British pound. We were also down by 0.099 against the Hong Kong dollar, leaving us on a rate of 11.653 at the end of the week.
The one vague improvement at the end of the second day last week was an increase to 2.1292 against the New Zealand dollar. But the increase really was only very slight. And we still experienced a dip against the Aussie dollar as we managed to drop a total of 0.0093 all in all, leaving us on 1.6370 at the end of day two.
So how did the rest of the week pan out? Let’s find out now as we move on to the exchange rates in play for the last three days of last week.
An overview of the currency markets for March 24th – March 26th 2010
Our first task is to see whether the British pound could pick things up against the US dollar. The starting rate here is 1.5012, but just one day later that dropped to 1.4909. So were we destined to end the week below the $1.50 level after all?
Thursday brought a little improvement but little really was the word. By the end of the day the exchange rate had crept up just a little to 1.4932. And if we were hoping for a valiant effort on Friday we were in for a disappointment. By the time the markets closed the pound was even lower on a dismal 1.4830. It seems the effects of the lacklustre Budget and the forthcoming Election could be hammering the pound’s chances of doing well at the moment.
Elsewhere in the currency markets could it do better against the Euro? Last time we left it on 1.1104 so let’s hope we could see out the week in better form here at least. There was a slight surge upwards on Wednesday as the pound made it up to 1.1178. Another improvement was in store on Thursday but it was a much smaller one, leaving us on 1.1180 at the end of the day. But the final piece of news for the week was not good, as we dipped back to 1.1106. At least that left us marginally better off than we had been on Tuesday night.
As far as the Hong Kong dollar was concerned, the pound was on the back foot when it closed out Tuesday night on 11.653. And once again the remaining days of the week were not looking good either. The following day we dived down to 11.572 and although there was a good jump up to 11.590 on Thursday this was one day too soon to be worth celebrating.
And indeed this was the case, because on Friday the pound ended up back down to 11.511. So once again we were finishing a week on a bad note.
Let’s see what happened with the New Zealand dollar now, as this gave us the only marginal increase for the first two days of last week. From 2.1292 on Tuesday night we then found ourselves on 2.1272 the night after, so things were not looking good overall.
This certainly turned out to be the case as the pound dropped further to 2.1038 on Thursday evening, before rallying ever so slightly to 2.1073 on Friday. It didn’t look as though we would achieve anything of note as the week came to a close.
Finally there is Australia to look at. Last time the British pound managed to finish Tuesday evening on 1.6370, having lost nearly a cent during the first two days of the week. There was a marginal increase to 1.6381 on Wednesday, but given the other results so far this week things were not looking good.
And we did lose more ground the following day too, as we finished on 1.6345 on Thursday evening. However the biggest surprise was saved for last, as we managed to achieve a rate of 1.6412 on Friday evening – our only good result to close the week with.
Notable events in the world of currency
New Zealand dollar climbs against Aussie dollar
From 0.7688 on Tuesday evening the New Zealand dollar managed to go up to 0.7788 on Friday evening.
Big jump for US dollar versus Canadian dollar
It went from 1.0190 on Tuesday evening to a much better exchange rate of 1.0275 on Friday night.
Canadian dollar beats Swiss franc
It was an up and down time though. The Canadian dollar closed on 1.0394 on Tuesday night, before climbing to 1.0507 by Thursday evening. It then dipped back to 1.0411 on Friday.
Greece is having troubles of its own at the moment, and it is these troubles that are contributing to the British pound’s bad performance against the Euro. You can read more about this particular currency news story at the Reuters website. We will keep you posted on more currency news as and when it happens.
So it was another disappointing round of results for the pound for the most part. The currency is definitely struggling at the moment, but it isn’t likely we will see any real improvement until after the election. The Budget didn’t help matters but there is no doubt that the election is overshadowing a lot of the pound’s performances of late as well.
We’ll be back soon to reveal more about how the pound is faring on the currency markets.
So once again the pound is doing pretty dreadfully against all other currencies, or pretty much all of them anyway. What a surprise – it could be a long time before we get a steady stream of excellent results to celebrate about.
Oh well maybe things will improve once the election is out of the way. It is only a month or so away now and speculation about the outcome does seem to be hurting the pound’s chances of getting back into an area where it is really worth something. I’m sticking to a UK holiday this year though so at least I don’t have to worry about exchange rates in that respect. It would be nice to consider a foreign holiday at some point though.
I know the pound is doing badly at the moment but I think we just have to accept it. That might sound like a negative thing to say but it doesn’t seem to be improving and I don’t think it will for a long time either. We might see the occasional peak in its performance but it won’t last long. I would love to be proved wrong though.
The one thing I would love to know more about is the Euro. Apparently it is going through a really rough patch itself and some people in France are even boycotting it. Can you imagine what would happen if more people did that? I know a lot of people don’t like the Euro anyway. I’ll keep watching!
It is obvious how badly the pound is doing and I don’t believe the poor financial situation the UK is now in is helping in the slightest. In fact I am sure that if you go back and look at when Gordon Brown got us into so much debt, you’ll see the pound nosedived after that.
I’m hoping the election will put things right in that respect but I don’t even think we can count on that at the moment. Hopefully I’m wrong but I have a sinking feeling the pound will be doing even worse once the 6th May is over, as that is when the election has been announced for. I only hope my vote helps towards trying to bring this country back to something approaching normal.