Last week had been challenging for the British pound, so we were hoping for better results this time around. The question now is whether we would get them or not.
An overview of the currency markets for February 24th – February 28th 2014
The British pound was sitting at 1.6678 on Monday morning but unfortunately it did not get a good start to the week. Instead it dropped to 1.6655 on Monday evening. This would turn out to be a week where the pound had to fight for every inch it could possibly get. It edged up to 1.6692 on Tuesday before dropping back once more over the next couple of days. Fortunately it did eventually improve and manage to save the best for last, rising to 1.6717 on Friday night as a result.
Over in Europe the pound started on 1.2167 against the Euro. This too dropped to begin the week, falling to 1.2126 in the process. However the next few days proved to be rather impressive, as the pound increased in value daily until it reached 1.2189 on Thursday night. We didn’t save the best for last here though since the pound fell to 1.2102 by Friday evening.
The opening rate against the Hong Kong dollar was 12.936 and we would have a challenging experience here as well. First we dropped back to 12.918 before we rose to 12.951 the next day. Wednesday and Thursday were certainly nothing to write home about though, finishing with 12.915 on the latter day of trading. Fortunately we did manage to successfully achieve a rate of 12.970 on Friday night, easing us into the best position we’d been in all week.
The week started with a healthy rate of 2.0147 against the New Zealand dollar, before dropping back to 2.0078 on Monday evening. Would this be the start of another slow slide throughout the week? Indeed it would, because although we saw a slight improvement come Wednesday evening, it was not enough to stop the rot that looked set to increase. Instead we fell to a week-long low of 1.9848.
Finally let’s see whether we had a similar pattern (and disappointment) in store against the Australian dollar. The starting rate here was 1.8596 and this fell to 1.8495 by the time just two days’ worth of trading had gone by. Fortunately this would be the lowest point of the week and from then on things got markedly better. Instead of continuing to drop, the British pound managed to edge up to an impressive closing point of 1.8655 for the week as a whole.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop against the Canadian dollar
At least here the drop wasn’t too large, as the pound went from 1.8621 on Monday morning to 1.8586 on Friday night.
More bad news against the Swiss franc
Here too the pound could not achieve much of note throughout the week. It fell from 1.4838 to 1.4708 over the trading week.
Better news against the Chinese yuan
Here at least the pound did well. It rose from 10.159 to 10.273 over the course of the week.
So it had been an interesting few days for the British pound. Some of the results were better than others to be sure, but it would be a challenge to produce a week where the pound consistently did well against all currencies. At least most of the changes this week were relatively small ones – we saw no significant losses against any of the major currencies we usually check. Of course we’d prefer not to see any losses at all, but since all manner of different factors come into play here the picture is not always a clear one.
We shall be back next time to reveal the next set of results for the British pound. Will they top this week’s performance or produce something disappointing to consider instead? We will find out soon enough.