Welcome back to our latest currency report, which focuses as always on a series of currencies that are best known to everyone. As December approaches the halfway point, would we get some good news for the pound or would there be bad results instead?
An overview of the currency markets for December 10th – December 14th 2012
So the week began with the pound standing at 1.6009 against the US dollar. But which direction would it head in and would the news be good or bad? The initial signs were good as the pound crept up to 1.6074 on day one, but where would things go from there? After another marginal increase on Tuesday the pound ended the midweek point on a healthy 1.6143. Unfortunately this would be the best it would get to, although it did still finish up on 1.6119 by the end of the week.
As far as the Euro was concerned, the pound started on 1.2405 in this head to head. It crept up to 1.2431 on Monday evening before dropping back to 1.2385 on Tuesday. Unfortunately this seemed to be the turning point that saw the pound perform more badly and the Euro get the better of it. It was a shame it started so early in the week because by Friday the pound had settled on a disappointing 1.2322.
Next it is time to check out the performance of the pound against the Hong Kong dollar. Here it started on 12.407 and it had a good start too – climbing to 12.457 by Monday evening. But would things continue in the same vein? The good news was they did for a while at least, as the pound managed to get an exchange rate of 12.511 by Thursday evening. Unfortunately it then slid back to 12.492 on Friday evening, although once again it was still better than it was originally.
Now let’s see whether the pound had anything to prove against the New Zealand dollar. The opening rate here was 1.9235 and that improved marginally to 1.9270 by Monday evening. But this reasonable start was soon forgotten as by Thursday evening the pound had slid to 1.9104. It recovered to 1.9179 by Friday but it was still lower than it had started on.
Finally let’s see whether a similar pattern would be played out against the Australian dollar. The pound began the week on 1.5280 and then improved to 1.5313 on Monday evening. The high point of the week came the following day when the pound reached 1.5334. But there were falls to come after that, although the pound did manage to close out the week on 1.5316.
Notable events in the world of currency
Little change against the Canadian dollar
The pound went from 1.5886 to 1.5869 last week against the Canadian loonie.
A drop against the Swiss franc
Here the pound fell from 1.4982 to 1.4897 over the course of the week against the Swiss franc.
But an improvement was seen against the Chinese yuan
Here the pound climbed from 9.9687 to 10.0682 over the week.
So it was a week of mixed results all told for the British pound last week. But none of the results – whether good or bad – were particularly earth shattering. We have seen much worse and indeed much better as well during the course of the year.
2012 may fast be coming to an end, but we have a couple more sets of results to bring you yet before we start looking at the currency markets in 2013. You can be sure to find out just which currencies will end the year on a good note. After this week it might be the case that you see some excellent results to close out the year with for the pound – but then again, you just never know, do you?