Pound, US Dollar, Euro, Australian and Canadian Dollars: Exchange Rates Latest

The latest news and predictions for some of the major exchange rates we follow - today's news includes the euro (EUR), British pound (GBP), US Dollar (USD), Australian Dollar (AUD) and Canadian Dollar (CAD).

Today's Exchange Rates (Compared to Last Night's Close)

• The pound to euro exchange rate: 0.06 pct lower, 1 GBP = 1.2695 EUR.
• The pound to US dollar exchange rate: 0.52 pct down, 1 GBP = 1.6034 USD.
• The pound to Australian dollar exchange rate: 0.25 pct up, 1 GBP = 1.8399 AUD.
• The pound to Canadian dollar exchange rate: 0.54 pct down, 1 GBP = 1.7934 CAD.
• The euro to dollar exchange rate: 0.48 pct lower, 1 EUR = 1.2630 USD.
• The Australian to US dollar rate: 0.85 pct lower, 1 AUD = 0.8766 USD.

If you are holding out for better rates don't risk it - ensure you have the correct protective and buy orders in place - find out how.

Beware: The above are spot market quotes, your bank will affix a discretionary spread to the figures. Note that an independent FX provider is able to provide up to 5% more currency in some cases by getting closer to the market, learn more here.

The British Pound Today: No Traction

The Bank of England kept rates steady at their October meeting. However, markets are starting to show us that they are highly cautious that the Bank will soon let it be known it is pushing back on when it intends to raise rates. 

The reason for this will be expectations of a Eurozone slowdown. While this should help keep the pound to euro exchange rate underpinned it does also represent a risk for the broader UK economy.

Chancellor George Osborne acknowledged yesterday in a BBC interview that the Eurozone slowdown has already been felt in UK manufacturing. Be assured - the Bank of England will be noting this and they could offer some sterling-negative news on interest rate risese being delayed.

Overall, the British pound continues to offer little hope that it is about to return to its winning ways.

GBP inched lower in tight ranges after data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed that shop prices fell by 1.8%(y/y) in September and a separate report showed that U.K. home price appreciation is likely to slow next year.

"The news was consistent with the view that the BOE may have more time to wait before raising its key borrowing costs," says Omer Esiner at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

For the time being we continue to see sterling exchange rates dominated by external drivers, such as USD strength and Euro weakness.

The US Dollar Today: USD Rally Stalls on FOMC, Then Boosted by Unemployment Data

The US dollar exchange rate complex is today higher after recovering from the release of the FOMC Minutes overnight which were perhaps on the dovish side of expectations.

"The Fed showed some concern that a further appreciation of the USD posed downside risks to exports and US growth, and could slow the gradual rise in inflation toward the 2% target. This subsequently prompted broad USD declines," say Lloyds Bank Research.

The dollar rose marginally against its major rivals over the preceeding 24 hours as investors continued to look for opportunities to buy the greenback on any dip.

"After rising to a four-year trade-weighted high in the wake of Friday’s stronger than expected payrolls report, the dollar looked somewhat overdue for a pullback, especially in light of its historic 12-week rally," says Omer Esiner at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

Lloyds say the case remains that monetary policy outlook is still data dependent. The bank suspects the USD may remain on the back foot in the near-term.

"However, we would not expect a significant reversal of the recent USD uptrend; US data remains firm and the recovery is still progressing, so we would not expect the USD weakness to extend," say Lloyds.

In this data-dependent environment the release of some better-than-expected data on US unemployment was warmly received - the USD rallied on news that weekly jobless claims fared better than expected, coming in at 287,000 compared to forecasts of 294,000. Moreover, the more reliable 4-week average fell to 8-year lows inside of 290,000.

The Euro Today: Short-Term Relief

The dollars woes are the euro's gains - so near-term the story could largely be about USD weakness as opposed to euro strength.

Indeed, we have no shortage of forecasts warning that the euro is likely to remain under pressure from a fundamental and technical basis.

However, the negative euro stance was boosted on news that Germany, the once-powerful engine for the Eurozone's economy, which is starting to show signs of rust.

"Even more poor data showed that German industrial production has seen the biggest drop since 2009. Germany's economic ministry advised that school holidays and bad timing were to blame but this won't be enough to dismiss the pessimism surrounding Germany and the rest of the Eurozone," says Myles Baxter at CaxtonFX.

It isn't all bad news for the Eurozone as Greece provided a glimmer of hope, unveiling an optimistic budget for 2015 and forecasting an economic expansion by 2.9% next year.

The Australian Dollar Today:

The Aus dollar has been an under-performer this week. The reason for the negativity surrounding AUD lies with labour market statistics and overall dipping sentiment towards the Australian economy.

"The ABS has concluded that the seasonal pattern previously evident for the July, August and September labour force estimates is not apparent in 2014," says the ABS which delivered a jolt to the markets.

Currency traders are now selling the Aussie dollar on the realisation that they may have been over-estimating the health of the underlying economy.

Indeed, August did provide an outsized +121K employment gain.  

In China, the Sep HSBC Services PMI and Composite PMI were both below prior releases, at 53.5 and 52.3 respectively – the strength of the Chinese economy remains a lingering issue for the AUD.

Further downward pressure on the AUD can be expected as the rallying US dollar supresses commodity prices. Australia is highly sensitive to commodity prices owing to its exposure to export-orientated sectors.

Canadian Dollar Today:

Challenges lie ahead for the Canadian currency warn analysts at TD Securities.

We have, in the past, pointed to the prospect of a weaker CAD on lower oil prices.

The view that lower commodity prices are bad for CAD has today been re-emphasises by TD Securities.

Writing to clients today, Shaun Osborne at TD says:

"Falling commodity prices represent a further challenge for the CAD in the medium-term.  

"Firstly, lower raw materials prices are usually reflected negatively in Canada’s terms of trade, which works against the CAD.  

"And secondly tumbling prices and high costs will squeeze marginal producers and may curb investment in the oil patch, representing another hurdle to the long-awaited rotation to trade an investment-led growth that the BoC has stated is vital for the growth outlook."