Welcome back to our latest look at the currency markets. We are reverting to a concise weekly report from now on, giving you the latest figures from the currency converter and seeing how the British pound is faring.
So with that in mind, let’s launch straight in.
An overview of the currency markets for September 20th – September 24th 2010
The last exchange rate we had for the pound versus the US dollar was 1.5626. As soon as the new week got underway the rate immediately went down to 1.5595. This dipped further to 1.5518 on Tuesday evening but luckily that was as low as it went.
The pound then improved to finish on 1.5715 on Friday evening, so this was a good start for the week.
The last time we looked at the pound versus the Euro we were on 1.1965. We then had a very disappointing two days as we dipped down to 1.1828, but then the following day got worse still as we fell to 1.1691. This wasn’t looking good at all.
We picked up a little towards the end of the week but we still only managed to reach 1.1717 in total.
So could we do better in Hong Kong? Here we started from 12.135 and once again the initial trend was going firmly downwards. Two days into the week we were on a disappointing 12.045. We did manage to claw back our losses here though, and by the time the week was over we were sitting on 12.190. Here at least we had recouped our losses – and then some.
Over in New Zealand we started with a figure of 2.1465. After the previous results we were half expecting a bad start here, and that was exactly what we got. We finished up on 2.1187 on Wednesday evening, but we still had two days to pull back the situation in our favour.
There was a huge jump to 2.1532 the next day and although we fell back to 2.1502 the day after, we had saved the week as a whole.
Finally let’s see how we did against the Australian dollar. From 1.6615 to open the week with, we experienced the same drop in form through to Wednesday evening. This left us sitting on 1.6348. We managed to improve to 1.6459 by the week’s end, but it wasn’t a good result all in all.
So it was a mixed week with not too much in the way of good news for the British pound, as we can see.
Notable events in the world of currency
A better result for the pound against the Canadian currency
Here we did better, improving from 1.6045 to 1.6170 over the course of the week.
… but a drop against the Swiss franc
It wasn’t good news everywhere though, as we fell from 1.5806 to a dismal 1.5423 by the time the week was out.
Better news against the Chinese currency
Just so we finish on a good note here, let’s take a look at what the pound achieved against the Chinese currency. We started on 10.506 and although we dropped back to 10.409 we ended the week on a better 10.541.
Quite often when a currency falls it is possible to see why by reading the currency news reports for that time period. This is certainly the case when you look at the currency story on the Reuters website for last week. This pointed to the good results achieved by the Euro and the bad results that the pound suffered. Good news coming out of Germany led to this result, so although it is something of a reprieve for the Euro it wasn’t too good for the British pound.
So there we have it for this week. Will we have better news to report next time? Let’s hope so – we’ll be here to tell you then.
I quite liked the twice weekly nature of the previous reports, but perhaps the once a week format is better – particularly as it comes out at the beginning of the week. As someone who travels frequently to other countries it’s good to start the week with some idea of what has been occurring in other major regions and countries in the world. I like to know what the potential exchange rates will be to start the week too.
I’m glad the new report will be staying at the beginning of the week as far as publication online is concerned. I am self employed and since I import goods from other countries I like to start the week by seeing how strong – or weak – the pound is against other major currencies. This will be a good move I think, one weekly report to see how things stand at the moment. I like it.
I’ve only just realised we’re down to one report and I was disappointed at first. Now I’ve seen it and read the comments above though, it seems better to be honest. I normally forgot the midweek one when it first came out and ended up catching up on the following Monday anyway! At least now I will read everything on time. It’s a good move for me, but what do others think?
I like the slimline report once a week as I remember to look at it on a Monday. I tended to forget about the midweek one until the weekend too. The main thing I think is to make sure we can all stay up to date with the reports because they provide us with ample information about how the pound is doing. I would miss them if I couldn’t check them every week.