Trans-Atlantic Exchange Rate Report for Nov 13 - 24

By: The Quinnipiac University Economics Research Team, Dan Hogan

Trans-Atlantic Currencies Index

Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Exchange rates are inverted to be USD per local currency (i.e., an increase indicates a stronger domestic currency) and then indexed to be 100 at the start of the period.

During the weeks of November 13th – 24th, all currencies saw a sustained strengthening against the USD. At 0.75%, the Canadian dollar (red) saw the weakest gains over this timeframe. All three other currencies saw a large appreciation early in the week of November 13th, and continued to climb from there. The British pound (green) enjoyed a 2.5% gain, the largest in the group, finishing nearly 0.5 percentage points over the Swiss Franc (maroon), who closed last Friday, up 2% on the USD. To round out the Trans-Atlantic group, the Euro (blue) appreciated 2.3%, following the pattern of both the franc and the pound.

Trans-Atlantic Historical Trends

Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Exchange rates are inverted to be USD per local currency (i.e., an increase indicates a stronger domestic currency. The center line is a rolling three-month average. The upper and lower boundaries are the average plus and average minus one standard deviation, respectively, for the same three-month period.

For the span of November 13th- 24th, the majority of the currencies continued to post strong numbers throughout the month of November, bucking the trend of September and October. The spike in appreciating for the euro (EUR) caused it to surpass its upper boundary for the first time since late August. Similarly, the Swiss franc (CHF) hit its respective upper boundary for the first time in nearly three months. The Candian dollar (CAD) did not see as much success, but was able to climb back above its lower boundry and hold its position. Finally, the British pound (GBP) strengthened enough to climb above its rolling three-month average. For all currencies, the trend has become very clear; they have been rallying for the past two weeks and maintaining their value after falling for nearly three months straight.