As always it seems as though the month of December is flying by, as our minds are firmly on Christmas. However we have the currency markets to take a look at and this will keep us busy for the time being.
An overview of the currency markets for December 9th – December 13th 2013
As the week got underway we saw the British pound standing at 1.6344 against the US dollar. We had a good start here too as the pound closed out the day on 1.6381. The following day was even better as the pound managed to rise to 1.6438, but this turned out to be false hope. Things were rather more challenging towards the end of the week, and by the time the trading was over on Friday the British pound had slipped to close on 1.6270 – the lowest rate of the entire week.
Over in Europe the pound was starting from a rate of 1.1964 against the Euro but this fell to close on 1.1938 on day one. It perked back up the following day but things were not destined to continue in the same vein. Indeed the overall trend was definitely in favour of the Euro instead of the pound, and by Friday evening we were faced with a disappointing closing rate of 1.1852.
Let’s see how the pound stood up to the Hong Kong dollar now. The pound started the week on 12.674 here and improved to 12.701 on day one. Things improved again on day two as we managed to rise to 12.744, but from that point on things became rather depressing. Indeed the British pound never recovered and slid gradually down in value to close on 12.614 on Friday evening.
It’s time to go across the world to New Zealand now, to see if their dollar was able to stand up to the pound as well. Our opening rate was 1.9936 and this dropped to 1.9801 on day one. We were in for another drop to 1.9760 on day two, before the pound was able to stop some of the rot. This led to a slightly healthier rate of 1.9876 on Wednesday evening. Perhaps predictably though we didn’t have enough to provide us with the great finish we wanted. Instead we finished on a disappointing 1.9783.
Perhaps the same would occur in Australia as well as the British pound prepared to do battle with the dollar there. The opening rate for the pound in this territory was 1.8024 and this edged up marginally to 1.8027 on Monday evening. We then experienced the predictable drop though, leaving us on 1.7979 on Tuesday evening. We managed to claw back a little ground the following day with a rise of 0.0019 but that was only the beginning of what turned out to be a comeback. By the time the week was over we had managed to improve to 1.8199.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop against the Canadian dollar
The British pound was clearly struggling in many areas this week. Here it fell from 1.7406 to 1.7335 over the week.
Another drop against the Swiss franc
Here there was more bad news as the British pound started on 1.4633 but could only finish on 1.4490.
Three for three as the pound drops against the Chinese yuan
Perhaps predictably the pound did badly here as well. It fell from 9.9429 to close the week on 9.8811.
So it was not a particularly good week for the British pound, and it really had little to do with Friday 13th. Indeed the rest of the week was pretty poor in most cases as well, so it was disappointing to say the least. Maybe we can hope for better next week, but as we get closer to Christmas we might see very little movement one way or another as far as the currencies are concerned. We’ll be back to report on what happens next very soon.