Pound lower than the euro

[widge]

Following the Spanish bail out of one of it's regional banks, I guess this is sort of good news for sterling??????????????


"Investors have started to sell the euro, believing that there'll be more banks in trouble, particularly in Southern Europe," said a foreign exchange trader at a European bank in Tokyo. "The euro's fall has not run its course."

[SAM SPARKLE]

Concerns regarding long-term damage to the Euro-Zone's leading economies are due to the high deficits of several European countries - these concerns have potential to weaken the currency further, and until a series of reassuring economic data will be received from the Euro-Zone, (whenever that will be ) the Euro has potential to drop once again.

[cereza]

The US$ is strong again today as it is seen as the only safe haven currency at a time when stock markets are falling again as confidence is battered by the bad European situation and the North Korean sabre rattling. Sterling is weak but the euro is even weaker and so the Stg/Euro rate has moved up towards 1-17. The minior Spanish banks are being sorted out but this won't make any difference to the overall Spanish situation which looks pretty bad.
Hopefully the Queen will give sterling a bit of a boost with her speech later
Stock values are looking cheap but the market sentiment is very bad and the confidence to buy is not there.
The old adage of selling in May and coming back in September was totally wrong in 2009 but it may be true this year
and with weak stocks the dollar stays strong.

[SAM SPARKLE]

Spot on Cereza as usual, I am hoping that the GBP/EUR rate will improve later today in our favour, then Rich can pounce and change his hard earned into Euro's.

[EMM]

Footsie has taken a real hammering this morning ( not good news for pension funds ) sterlingeuro down against the dollar but £ just above E1.17. Very Mixed news .

[SAM SPARKLE]

With Wall St still to open, the rest of the world markets have rebounded after yesterdays fall and looks like confidence has been restored, I am glad to say the GBP/EUR ex rate is also slowly improving after treading water yesterday.

[cereza]

Yes panic over in the stock market (for the moment) but Euro still weakening. The Germans attempts to stop short selling are just having the opposite effect to that intended. What do they know that we don't know??
So many politicians in the EU seem to have no idea at all about financial markets and it is this sort of uncertainty which creates a massive loss of confidence. Still mustn't complain since sterling moved up to 1-18 this afternoon

[SAM SPARKLE]

1.20 anyone?

[EMM]

Getting light headed just over E1.18/£

[laserblazer]

We are planning to buy some tomorrow, so that should knock it back to sub 1.10

[SAM SPARKLE]

You should be ok Lazer, the exchange rate is still in your favour. Accept no less than 1.1600 tourist rate.

[dodger]

I have got a fairfx card and it made my euro worth 85p which I thought was pretty good.

Has anyone used one of these,is it as easy as a bank card to withdraw cash with?

[destroyer]

Dodger, I've used my Fairfx card in the town ATM's and around the Algarve - never had a problem. I found 200 Euros was the maximum withdrawal allowed and it will of course cost you 1.50 Euros each time. Stating the obvious but I just add 1.50 to each 200 top up of the card. Adding extra money to the card is pretty well an instant transfer so I just used one of the internet cafes in the town when I'd blown my budget by day ten as usual.

[TomUK]

Been getting steady 1.16 - 1.17 using Nationwide DEBIT card in ATM's (they attract no fees). Also getting 1.17 when paying for petrol and meals with credit card. Exchange bureaux mostly seem to have been stuck on 1.11 - 1.12. Notice that petrol prices have dropped a few cents in last few days also.

[cereza]

Euro on the skids again today -sterling has broken through the 1-19 level now - 1-20 before too long