Welcome back to another weekly report on how the British currency is performing on the world markets. Some weeks leave us unable to promise you a good result, and it looks as though this week will be one of them. With no further ado, let’s reveal the situation as it was last week.
An overview of the currency markets for October 8th – October 12th 2012
The British pound would start the week on 1.6186 against the US dollar, but we had the worst possible start by dropping to 1.6029 on Monday evening. This left us with more than a cent and a half to catch up on over the rest of the week. A marginal increase on Tuesday gave way to another loss on Wednesday, before things started to pick up again. However we could not do better than to finish the week on 1.6081 on Friday evening.
Over in Europe things had a similar look against the Euro. The pound started on 1.2449 and closed on Monday night on 1.2370. Not quite as bad you might say, but a small increase on Tuesday was replaced by a loss on Wednesday just the same. Indeed things did not progress well here because the final rate for the week turned out to be a disappointing 1.2399.
Elsewhere in Hong Kong, the pound started on 12.549 but dropped to 12.428 on day one. By now we had a familiar pattern, and the midweek attempt to gain ground was met with disappointment. The pound finished the week on 12.466 against the Hong Kong dollar.
So let’s move on to the New Zealand dollar to see whether we can find a similar pattern there. The pound opened on a rate of 1.9638 and dropped slightly to 1.9611 on day one. This was followed by another drop to 1.9519 on day two, so things were not heading in a good direction. However we reached rock bottom on day two, so there was better news coming as the week closed on 1.9609.
Finally we have the Australian dollar to look at. Here the pound started at 1.5788 and immediately dropped (a familiar story now) to 1.5736. It never recovered either and by the time the week was done the pound was down to 1.5690 – a disappointing outcome once again.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another drop against the Canadian dollar
The pound had a bad time against the Canadian dollar as well, as it fell from 1.5873 to 1.5719 during the week.
More bad news against the Swiss franc
It wasn’t turning out to be our week as the pound fell from 1.5078 to 1.4994 against the Swiss franc as well.
The same story plays out against the Icelandic krona as well
Here the pound started on 197.628 and ended up on 197.447.
So we can see it has been a troubling week for the pound, with no real good news to focus on. Perhaps we can hope for better next week, although it seems unlikely that it will turn out to be the case.
However, elsewhere things did not change much at all. This was particularly borne out by news that the Canadian dollar held steady against the US dollar, as you can read here. The two often hover near parity with each other but this was more about keeping things on an even keel.
So perhaps this week was not the success story we had hoped for. But where would it leave us in the days and weeks to come? Is the pound in a slump that could go on for a while, or will we have better news next week to help us through this period of time? We shall see – and we will be back with the latest sets of results as soon as we have them. See you next week.
I can’t say I’m particularly surprised at this. What does surprise me though is why the pound isn’t able to be more powerful against the Euro. You only need to look at what is going on in the Eurozone to see how much better things are over here. I wonder why the pound can’t be more assertive. I know there are lots of things that go to influence the outcome of the currency results, but it seems strange that things never seem to go in our favour.
I think there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Why should the Euro be able to perform better than it could do? It’s a good question. I don’t have the answer, but I suppose if the currency is seen as a good investment (although why that should be I have no idea) then it would perk up in value. Wouldn’t it?