Swiss Frank/Euro
Swiss National Bank stunned the markets by scrapping its three-year old cap of 1.20 Swiss francs per euro. The central bank said the franc was now out of the period of “exceptional overvaluation” during which the minimum exchange rate had been introduced.
The SNB’s latest move
unleashed new volatility among bonds and currencies around the world. SNB’s abandoning of the cap prompted a collapse of as much as 30% in the euro versus the franc – the biggest single-day move in a developed market that traders could recall. One Franc Equals Euro in less than a week.
Dollar/Yen
With the prime minister's program, dubbed Abenomics.
A large part of the problem can be seen in the sharply lower value of the yen. Even though the currency's fall should eventually help boost exports as Japanese goods become more competitive overseas, it also immediately raises the price of imports.
Dollar/Canadian Dollar
The number of Canadians crossing the border at B.C. points of entry dropped sharply in the past year as the value of the Canadian dollar fell relative to the U.S. greenback.
In December 2013, when the loonie was trading at 94 cents US, 293,950 Canadians crossed the Douglas (Peace Arch) border crossing on their way back from the U.S.
The current value is 1.2 Canadian dollar to the US dollar.
Dollar/ Euro
The Euro sank to a more than 11-year low against the dollar and a three-month low against the yen after the European Central Bank launched a landmark bond-buying program that will pump hundreds of billions into a sagging euro zone economy.
"The ECB has obviously taken decisive action,'' said Dean Popplewell, chief currency strategist at OANDA in Toronto. "What we are seeing is some individuals actually adding to their short positions at these levels.'' [2014]
