Welcome to another weekly currency report, and we have some interesting results to share with you this week. The title gives away something of what occurred last week, although you will find out the details by reading the following report in full.
An overview of the currency markets for April 15th – April 19th 2013
As the week began, the British pound was standing at 1.5360 against the US dollar. Where would it stand in five days time? To begin with, the dollar got the upper hand by pushing the pound back down to 1.5337. This was repeated to some extent the following day, as the pound dropped further to 1.5321. Indeed, this was turning into a tough week for the British pound, as it reached a low of 1.5243 the next day. It then improved through the second half of the week, but it still only reached 1.5349 by Friday evening.
Would we see a similar performance against the Euro? To begin with, the pound was on 1.1768 but this too dropped to 1.1724 by Monday evening. As things turned out, we saw a similar pattern against the Euro throughout the first half of the week as we had against the dollar. The low point came on the same day as it had there, falling to 1.1610 on Wednesday evening. Things then started to improve but they only reached a week ending rate of 1.1704 by Friday night.
Let’s see whether we could fare any better against the Hong Kong dollar now. We opened on 11.922 here before dropping back continually over the first three days, reaching 11.832 as a result. Going on the pattern we had seen against the US dollar and the Euro, we should expect a rise in fortunes from here on in, and that was exactly what we got. We ended up with a week ending rate of 11.917, just shy of where we had begun.
Given the performance we have seen thus far, we got a surprise when we looked at how the pound fared against the New Zealand dollar. Here we began with a rate of 1.7867 and then jumped immediately to close Monday night on 1.8106. This fell back to 1.7998 by Wednesday evening, but we then began to climb again, finishing the week on a healthy 1.8125 as a result.
Could we achieve another good result against the Australian dollar as well? The pound opened on 1.4588 here and had a similar improvement on day one, climbing to 1.4741 as a result. However, although we did have a midweek blip it was only a tiny one and we soon found ourselves looking at a much improved week ending rate of 1.4854. At least we had two very good results to close out the week balanced against the other three not as impressive ones.
Notable events in the world of currency
Pound rises against Canadian dollar
There was good news here as the British pound managed to improve from 1.5543 to 1.5733 over the course of the week.
A slight fall against the Swiss franc
Bad news for the pound here though, as it started on 1.4319 and fell to 1.4250 by the time the week was over.
And a poor result against the Icelandic krona as well
Here too there was bad news, as the pound started from a rate of 182.581 and ended on 179.171 on Friday night.
So the week as a whole was not as encouraging as it could have been. In some parts of the world, the pound performed well and brought home some good results – notably against the Aussie dollar and the Kiwi dollar. However, elsewhere it did not do well, and Europe in particular produced some poor results for the pound.
It remains to be seen whether next week will produce a similar set of results, or whether the pound can redeem itself. We shall be watching.