Currency Trends In The Second Quarter Of 2010

On Friday, 16th July, 2010, the currency trends in the US, in early European session has lost some of its gains along with the Japanese Yen, as a rise in European stocks is seen in early trading. Most economists are concerned about the global economic recovery due to the recent weak wholesale prices and manufacturing data from the US.

South Korea’s Kospi declined by 0.7% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell by 2.96%. New Zealand’s NZX 50 index lost 0.55% and Taiwan’s main index eased by 0.5%. The All Ordinaries index and the Australia’s S&P 200 index each slid by 0.4%.

Though there was a drop seen in most Asian stocks, the European stocks has seen profit today. France’s CAC 40 index climbed by 0.3%, Germany’s DAX rose by 0.4% in early and UK’s FTSE 10 index gained 0.5%.

The USD fell to a new low of 1.0402 at 3.35 am, ET, on Friday, 16th July, 2010. However, the Swiss franc rose to a high of 1.0452. The USD/CHF pair is now worth 1.0410. Initially the dollar had shown a rise of 1.2892 against the Euro and 1.5395 against the Pound at 2:20 am ET, but lost ground after that. Till now, the dollar is worth 1.5440 per Pound and 1.2942 per Euro.

The US dollar lost against most of the major currencies excepting the Aussie and Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar has shown a rise of 0.17% against the Aussie dollar today.

On the contrary to the dollar, the euro has gained against all major currencies. Till Thursday, 15th July, 2010, it gained 1.491% against the Australian dollar, 0.410% against the Swiss franc, 0.553% against the Japanese yen and 1.981% against the Canadian dollar.

Investors are at awe and thinking how the finance reform bill passed by the Senate today will affect the market. However, Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is in favor of the legislation. According to him, it will consolidate and strengthen the supervision of financial institutions and those who are engaged to trade in binary options.

However, according to David Semmens, U.S. economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, the currency trends clearly points to an economy which has a very slow and weak start. Investors are still worrying about the pace of the US finance market recovery.