US ($) Currency Thread 1 (closed - use thread 2)

inspector_monkfish

jonomassey wrote: »

I've just had a quote from crown currency at 1.4875 for when I need them. They obviously think the rate will improve..........

when do u need them?

inspector_monkfish

US home sales figures out any second now.....

inspector_monkfish

jonomassey wrote: »

I've just had a quote from crown currency at 1.4875 for when I need them. They obviously think the rate will improve..........

sorry, June wasn't it...

inspector_monkfish

inspector_monkfish wrote: »

US home sales figures out any second now.....

came in worse than expected....

jonomassey

How much worse?

yozzer2006

jonomassey wrote: »

Hi, I'm due to go to Florida in June, I'm taking £1200 spending money. Do you recommend purchasing today at $1.425 from interchange or waiting to see if the rate will increase? Looking at the UK forecast for the pound it is tipped to decline from March to June to as low as $1.35. Any thoughts would be helpful.

TMS are giving $1.4950 for travel between 12/05/09 - 25/07/09. I suppose you could hedge your bets and buy some dollars from them?

jonathanrichardson69

i go on my honeymoon in may, the amount i will be buying will make a huge difference even if the rate only goes up or down by 10cent. i'm stuck for what to do. will it go up? or will it go down? who knows!!!

inspector_monkfish

jonomassey wrote: »

How much worse?

Existing Home sales

Dec 4.74m
Jan 'expected' UP 0.05m to 4.79m
Jan 'actual' DOWN 0.25m to 4.49m

jonomassey

Thanks for that, I may just do that to secure that rate as its as close to 1.50 as we may get..........

inspector_monkfish

15:16 25Feb09 INSTANT VIEW 3-U.S. existing home sales tumble in Jan

NEW YORK, Feb 25 - The pace of existing home
sales in the United States fell in January to a 4.49 million-unit annual rate while home prices dropped along with inventories, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Wednesday.


KEY POINTS:
* Economists polled by Reuters were expecting home resales to
rise to a 4.79 million-unit pace, from the 4.74 rate initially
reported for December, which was unchanged.

* The inventory of existing homes for sale fell 2.7 percent to
3.60 million from the 3.70 million overstock reported in
December.

* The median national home price declined 14.8 percent from a
year ago to $170,300 - the lowest since a $169,400 level seen
in March 2003.

COMMENTS:
WARREN WEST, PRINCIPAL, GREENTREE BROKERAGE SERVICES,
PHILADELPHIA:
"The 4.49 million-unit drop is a little disappointing, but
not totally a surprise. We have been warned repeatedly how bad
things are. I think every rally we have seen has been met with
a sell-off. Yesterday we gained strongly in the markets and now
we are seeing people get out of this market. We will be in a
tight trading range for some time -- we have been moving
sideways since October. The Dow Jones industrial average, for
all its faults, is a sentiment indicator and you can see that
things just feel bad."

MICHELLE MEYER, ECONOMIST, BARCLAYS CAPITAL, NEW YORK:
"The data was surprising and came in below expectations,
which was led by a sharp drop in the Northeast. That is to be
expected as we are seeing the areas hit hard by foreclosures
faring better due to price discounts. So, the regions where
foreclosures are not as rampant are struggling with sales. The
other thing that is noteworthy is the drop in inventory, which
is somewhat encouraging. But, you have to be careful as the
inventory data is not seasonally adjusted, so you can see
seasonal swings."

TOMMY WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT, WILLIAMS FINANCIAL ADVISORS,
SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA:
"We are in such a state of chaos right now with the
attempts to stem foreclosures, the need to burn up the excess
inventory, the need to somehow diminish the crisis in
confidence with the American public doing defensive saving and
being risk averse in this unprecedented crisis."
"The Treasury market has priced a lot of this (housing
market chaos) in."

GARY THAYER, SENIOR ECONOMIST, WACHOVIA SECURITIES, ST. LOUIS,
MISSOURI:
"Sales were disappointing. We saw another new low for this
cycle in January. Sales of condos and coops were hit
particularly hard. They were down 10.2 percent. Single-family
homes were only down 4.7 percent. It looks like mortgage rates
are not low enough yet to entice buyers into the market. Home
prices are continuing to slide. They're down 14.8 percent over
the past year. That makes housing very affordable relative to
income, but buyers are still holding back. We probably need to
see a little more confidence in the economy to get buyers back
into the housing market and that's just not happening yet."

MARKET REACTION:
STOCKS: U.S. equity indexes add to losses.
BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices hold flat.
DOLLAR: U.S. dollar extends gains versus euro.