Here we are with the latest report for the currency markets. Last time we saw the British pound end the week on a good note, improving against four out of the five main currencies we always look at. The only thorn in our side was surprisingly against the Euro, although the single currency did have a better week last week than it has had in recent times on the currency converter.
So now we press ahead into the first two days of the next week. We have good strong rates against the US dollar, the Hong Kong dollar and the New Zealand and Australian dollars as well at the moment. So we are hopeful that we could see a strong start here too.
But will we be proved wrong – or right – in that situation? Let’s see.
An overview of the currency markets for July 19th – July 20th 2010
So we have a starting figure of 1.5378 to go with here against the US dollar, but unfortunately we did not get good news on Monday evening. Instead we had a closing rate of 1.5274 to contend with, losing around a cent in just twenty four hours.
If we were hoping for better news on Tuesday night we would be disappointed here too. We ended up finishing on 1.5156, so we shall have to wait and see if the pound ends on a better note than it started.
But how would it perform against the Euro this time around? The starting rate here was 1.1829 after a poor showing to finish the previous week. But unfortunately we could do no better initially as the pound fell to 1.1788. We did recoup some losses the next day though, finishing Tuesday on 1.1800.
Next we have the Hong Kong dollar and an opening rate of 11.954. And here we had a similar story as well. By Monday evening we had slipped back to 11.878. Any hope of an improvement the following day was cancelled when we ended up sliding down further to 11.785. Clearly this was not the best start to the week at all.
Moving on, we come to the New Zealand dollar now and a rate of 2.1465 to begin with. We had an excellent start here as we finished Monday on 2.1640 but it all went to pot the following day as we crashed back down to 2.1384.
Finally we have the Australian dollar to look at. With an opening rate of 1.7521 to start with, we were hoping we could at least have a good start here. And we did, as we closed out Monday’s trading on 1.7615. Unfortunately we could not keep this performance up and by Tuesday evening we were back down to 1.7367.
So this was not exactly the best start to the week we could have had.
Notable events in the world of currency
New Zealand dollar slips slightly against Aussie dollar
From a rate of 0.8162 as the week began to a rate of 0.8121 two days later, the week did not start well for the Kiwi dollar.
Another dip against the US dollar
The Kiwi dollar wasn’t having the best start to the week as it fell from 0.7164 to 0.7087 over the course of those opening two days of trading.
But the Kiwi dollar does get a better result against the Canadian dollar
It didn’t look promising to begin with as the Kiwi dollar went from 0.7487 to 0.7444. But on Tuesday it climbed back to 0.7495.
The Aussie dollar has actually done well in recent days, as this story from the FT.com website attests. You will need to register for free access to read this story, but it is worth doing.
So the story for the British pound is somewhat murky at the moment. We had a strong finish to the week last time around but this time we have not had the results we really wanted. Perhaps we shall pick up again as the rest of the week gets underway, and achieve another strong finish here?
Whatever happens we shall be here to give you the answers you want. We’ll see you again soon with another report.
As a self employed person who runs their own business, I am constantly looking at how well – or badly – the pound is doing against other foreign currencies. My issue is that a weak pound (which is what we have had lately) makes it harder for me to make a good profit. I export goods from other countries and recently the costs in doing so have gone up – largely as a result of a weaker pound.
So I am encouraged (albeit only mildly) to see the pound doing slightly better in some quarters. I am hoping this continues so that I can continue to see better results for my business. I know there are other ways to trim costs but the value of the pound has a real effect too.