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We asked the office for their charity suggestions and a list of 26 charities was compiled. We then all voted for our favourite nine charities, giving a score from 9 down to 1 and then totted up all the scores, the top 9 being the winners!

This has given us a list of 9 democratically chosen charities for us to support over the next 3 months. All the charities are worthy causes and cover a very wide spectrum, which should make donating over the next 3 months really interesting.

The charities Currencies Direct will be supporting over the next 3 months along with the amount of votes they received are:

October
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) - 87
Sickle Cell Society - 71
The Samaritans - 64

November
The Childrens Society - 93
RNIB - 60
Oxfam - 58

December
Streetchild - 75
Royal Mencap - 60
Shelter - 68

Next week I will be updating the co-operative wall with the new total, and will hopefully have more news on the Wii Bowling Championship.

Thank you for Reading!

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says that UK growth may be beginning to pick up and is well placed for recovery. People however should not get too carried away as growth is very small after a very big contraction. The weaker pound is helping the necessary rebalancing of the UK economy in regard to exports. On the back of this Sterling has dropped by over a cent against both the dollar and euro

Overnight, the decision by the Fed to leave interest rates on hold is still being digested by markets.This morning, onfirming the positive tone of last week’s ZEW survey and yesterday’s ‘flash’ PMIs, the September German IFO business survey is forecast to edge higher to 91.5 from 90.5 in August. The expectations index, arguably the best gauge of economic

prospects has posted successive increases since the start of the year, indicating economic growth may have picked up in Q3. We also expect positive data from the US this afternoon, with initial jobless claims forecast to post another fall in the week ended September 19 and a fifth successive rise in existing home sales in August.

In the UK, Spencer Dale,MPC member and chief economist at the BoE, takes to the stage at 13.15,in Exeter, you have been warned. Expect more negativity surrounding the pound.

The US Dollar fell to a one-year low against the euro and weakened versus the yen on speculation that the global economic recovery is gathering strength and abetted by the view that the Federal Reserve will confirm this evening that US interest rates will remain at their current extraordinarily low levels for some time to come. These factors are having the ongoing effect of encouraging investors to buy higher-yielding assets and currencies and data showing that the New Zealand economy had emerged from recession only encouraged the shift towards risk. The Kiwi Finance Minister Bill English said that although their economy is stabilising, there is still a lot of work to do. The market however preferred to concentrate on the numbers - 2nd qtr GDP was reported to show growth of 0.1% q/q against the expectation of a 0.2% contraction. The NZ$ jumped on the news, up to another 14-month high (0.7315 v the US$ against 0.7190 prior to the data), dragging the Aussie with it.

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Watch Mark O’Sullivan’s interview on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00myn8q/Working_Lunch_22_09_2009/

or watch our daily market commentary podcasts by clicking here

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Sliding: The pound is now worth €1.10
Millions of Britons face another hike in the cost of travel today after the pound fell to a five-month low against the euro. The exchange rate dropped to 1.1016 euros per pound after the Bank of England warned that the UK’s record debt is putting off investors. It means items purchased in the 22 countries which use the single currency will now cost 6 per cent more than they did last month. Until last month, sterling’s value had been slowly rising since it sunk to an exchange rate of nearly one to one last December. In August it was worth 1.17 euros. But since then the pound has lost value virtually every day – renewing fears it will once again hit parity with the euro by Christmas. The fall in the value of the pound against the euro has sparked renewed fears the two currencies will hit parity – or becomes less valuable. ‘We were here last October and we headed down to parity against the euro by Christmas. I think we are going the same way again,’ Mark O’Sullivan from Currencies Direct told the BBC. Read the rest of this entry »

The USD traded well for the most part of yesterday as the anticipated a more hawkish tone from the FOMC interest rate meeting due tomorrow night- in particular it is expected that FED will look at an exit strategy soon on measures introduced. In addition as the USD has been sold aggressively in the last 2 weeks then it was unsurprising to see some profit taking in the markets. However in later trading the USD once again turned negative as rumours surrounding the G20 escalated; the talk was that the G20 will call for gains in certain currencies to help reduce global trade imbalances. The USD was further hindered by increased risk appetite as the Asian Development bank upgraded their growth forecasts for Asia for 2009 and 2010.

The pound remained under pressure yesterday in particular against the euro hitting a 5 month low. The key level will be 1.10/0.9090 and for the moment this is holding, however we do have the risk event of the Bank of England minutes tomorrow which is expected to reiterate the negativity and dovish tone of the Bank of England. The BoE yesterday in their quarterly report said that “It is possible that sterling’s depreciation may be part of a more prolonged process of rebalancing of the UK economy, generating a fall in the long-run sustainable real exchange rate.” This statement confirms that the BoE expect a weaker pound going forward.
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