Here we are then with our first brand new report for the New Year. As you may remember, 2010 ended on something of a damp squib in many ways. Will 2011 start on a more positive note for the British pound? We can but hope this is true.
An overview of the currency markets for January 3rd – January 7th 2011
The last rate in 2010 for the pound versus the US dollar was 1.5523. And although we dropped to 1.5497 on the first trading day of 2011, we made up for it the following day when we improved to 1.5628. Unfortunately that would be the best we could achieve because we slipped back the remainder of the week. Eventually we finished up with a rate of 1.5461 to go into the next week with.
Next up let’s see whether the Euro was stronger than the pound or vice versa. The pound had a rate of 1.1617 against the Euro at the close of 2010, and while we fell slightly the following day to 1.1610, this would be the worst it would get to.
We then climbed an incredible amount during the rest of the week and finished up on an amazing 1.1928. If only every week could be as positive as that!
2010 closed out with an exchange rate of 12.065 against the Hong Kong dollar, so could we hope to have a result that was anywhere near as good as the one we had against the Euro? We did manage to climb to 12.140 at one point, but that was midway through the week and it soon became clear that we weren’t going to achieve anything really notable here. In fact we finished up down to 12.016 by the close of play on Friday night, so it was a bit of a disappointment.
Last time we had a dreadful time against the New Zealand dollar, dropping as low as 1.9982 in the process. We needed a good start against the currency for 2011, and while we slid back on Monday we were up to 2.0358 the next day. We then managed to claw our way back to 2.0412 by the end of the week.
Finally we have our regular look at the state of play between the pound and the Australian dollar. A slight loss at the end of December left us on 1.5261 and once again a familiar drop on the first day back in 2011 was experienced. But then it was pretty much all good news, leaving us closing out the week on 1.5579.
Notable events in the world of currency
A rocky time between the US and Canadian dollars
This was a tussle worth watching during the week. The ups and downs left the US dollar going from 0.9970 to 0.9927 overall.
A good result for the British pound versus the Swiss franc
Another good result here led the pound to go from 1.4526 to 1.4925 by the time the week was over.
Very little change for the pound against the Chinese currency
Sometimes we see little movement at all for the pound, and as it went from 10.249 to 10.247 from week to week, this was the case this time around too.
The state of the Eurozone has certainly been influencing some results in the first few days of 2011, as this report from Reuters confirms. We shall be watching to find out if the Eurozone’s woes continue to affect its many members.
Hopefully things will continue to perk up for the pound as we go more deeply into the New Year. The first week is always a little subdued in some ways, and perhaps that applies to the currencies as well.
But we shall be looking out for better results and hopefully more to celebrate as well, given the promising start we have had so far.
We are about a month into the New Year now, but it is interesting to see how the pound finished off one year and went into the next. I have been reading a lot of information about the pound and its progression into 2011, and I think we could see some more ups and downs before too long. I have a feeling the downs could be more pronounced than we might think too, but we’ll see.
I agree – I think it is good to see how one year progresses to the next. I’m not really affected in a major way by what the different currencies are doing from week to week. But then again maybe I am and I don’t realise it. In any event it is fascinating to see how the pound saw out 2010 and went into 2011. I wonder what will happen from 2011 to 2012?