It has been a busy week on the currency converter markets, but how did the British pound do during this time? Did it manage to achieve good things or was it treading water? Let’s find out whether it came out on top this time around.
An overview of the currency markets for January 23rd – January 27th 2012
The last time we caught up with the pound versus the US dollar it was worth 1.5471. The first day of this new week seemed to indicate good things as it improved to 1.5565. But was this merely a good start that didn’t go much further, or would it be the beginning of a good week?
Despite having a midweek dip of sorts, the pound didn’t let that sway its overall performance. By the end of the week it had achieved the heady heights of 1.5707, so this was a good result to begin with.
The opening rate against the Euro was 1.1991 but here the early signs were not as good. We dropped to 1.1958 by Monday night although later in the week we put the pressure on and improved to 1.2018 as a result. It was not to be our week here though, as we fell back to 1.1949 by Friday.
So which way would our tussle with the Hong Kong dollar go? We started on 12.009 and it became very clear that the pattern would be similar to the one we had seen against the US dollar. That midweek dip caused a little concern, but the overall trend was up. We managed to improve to 12.182 by the end of the week.
Moving on to the New Zealand dollar now, it became clear there was a real tussle going on here as well. The opening rate of 1.9272 soon disappeared as we fell to 1.9142 on day one. But we bounced back to 1.9281 on day two before achieving a week long high of 1.9306 on the 25th. Unfortunately we finished the week on 1.9058, considerably down on our starting point.
Finally let’s see whether the Australian dollar would follow a similar pattern to the Kiwi dollar. The opening rate for the week was 1.4844 and there would be very little difference throughout the week as a whole. Through ups and downs we eventually managed to end on 1.4729. Slightly lower, although not as bad as it could have been.
Notable events in the world of currency
A marginal improvement against the Canadian dollar
There was little to note here but the small change did go in our favour. We improved from 1.5680 to 1.5688.
But a drop against the Swiss franc
The Swiss currency did get the better of us though, pushing us back from 1.4482 to 1.4432.
And another improvement against the Chinese yuan
Here we did rather well as we climbed from 9.8011 to 9.9175 over the course of the week.
Perhaps one of the most notable things to happen this week was the considerable improvement of the British pound against the US dollar. This news story from Reuters described the mechanisms behind this event. We can but hope for equally good results next week as well.
One of the more disappointing events of the week was that the pound did badly against the Euro. There is still plenty of turmoil in the European area at the moment, and we cannot seem to make the most of battering the Euro as a result. Indeed the Euro is looking slightly stronger than the pound at the moment. We wonder if this will be an ongoing theme, as it has been in the past few weeks, or whether there are changes in the offing. We can but wait to see whether the British pound can improve its positioning in the coming weeks. We shall be watching and hoping that it does.
So the pound is treading its own average course at the moment then. I must admit I have thought several times lately that it should be able to beat the Euro at its own game. I wonder why it’s so weak. I know things aren’t brilliant anywhere but this is a disappointment. I thought it would be able to beat the single currency hands down with no problem. Maybe it will in the coming weeks instead.
David I think you’re seeing things a little too black and white here. There is no doubt that the Euro is in a pickle, but let’s not forget that the pound is struggling as well. It’s not all roses over here, even though we’re not part of the single currency. Thank God we’re not in my opinion, but just because the Euro is doing badly it doesn’t automatically mean the pound will do well. There could be any number of other reasons – like the poor economy at the moment for example – why the pound won’t capitalise on the poor Euro.
Ok Reg I think you’re probably right. I suppose I was keeping things a little basic overall. I still think we could be doing better but I suppose it’s all down to so many different factors. The stuff we see on the surface isn’t necessarily the whole picture so the pound could be struggling even when the Euro is in dire straits (which I think it is). Thanks for the insight though!