Welcome to another regular overview of the world currency markets, as revealed from the point of view of the British pound. Where will it take us this week as we glance at the figures on the currency converter? Let’s see right now.
An overview of the currency markets for November 14th – November 18th 2011
Beginning as always with the US dollar, the British pound was starting against the currency with a rate of 1.5931. This went up marginally to 1.5945 the next day, but then it started to drop. Indeed by the 17th the exchange rate was down to 1.5783. However it did then manage to redeem itself slightly by the end of the week, finishing on 1.5821 as a result.
The opening rate against the Euro was 1.1671 last week, and just two days in the pound was up to 1.1717. So was this going to be a solid week for the pound? Well, as it turned out that would be the highest rate of the week and in the end the pound finished up lower than it had when it started, although not by much. It finished on 1.1654 on Friday evening.
Next up it is the turn of the Hong Kong dollar. Here the pound was starting from 12.399, and once again we had a good start that didn’t last very long. By Monday night we were up to 12.405 but this was the best rate we would achieve all week. We dropped to a low of 12.283on Thursday but managed to redeem it by hopping back up to 12.320 by Friday night.
Next up we have the New Zealand dollar to look at. Here we were now over the two dollar mark to start with at 2.0466, so could we stay in this territory? We dropped to 2.0368 initially but then shot up to 2.0611 the day after. While we lost ground again over the next day or two we did eventually end up on a much better 2.0744 by the end of the week.
Finally let’s see where we ended up against the Australian dollar. Did we do well here too? Our opening rate was 1.5672 and we dropped here on day one as well, falling to 1.5586. But the pattern was very similar as it had been against the Kiwi dollar, and so we ended up in a better position on 1.5708 by the end of the week.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop for the pound against the Canadian dollar
Not good news here, as the pound went from 1.6230 to 1.6175 over the course of the week.
Little difference against the Swiss franc
Sometimes you see very little movement at all against a currency, and that was the case against the Swiss franc. It started on 1.4425, moved up slightly during the week and then fell back to the same rate.
But a slight improvement against the Icelandic krona
Here we saw a rise from 185.328 to 186.063 over the course of the week, charting a positive course for the British pound.
If we are seeing a pattern in the currency markets at all at the moment, it is concerned with how the various world currencies are reacting to the European debt crisis. As this story from the Bloomberg website shows, it is clear that many currencies are struggling at the moment, not least the South Korean won.
So where will we be in a week from now? It is impossible to say, because events in Europe and elsewhere are developing apace on a daily basis. All we can do is sit and watch and hope that the British pound isn’t too badly damaged by the events that are unfolding. No one knows quite where we are heading next, so it will be interesting to see what occurs.
It seems like it was a very average kind of week this time around. Some weeks we see great results for the pound and others we see very poor ones. But this was a week that stood out precisely because it didn’t stand out, if that makes sense. I suppose we will always get weeks like this because they add to the overall mix. You’ll get some reasonable results and other ones that aren’t as good.