Welcome to another in-depth report on the currency markets. We have seen the British pound increase in value over the past few months compared to where it stood at some points over the last couple of years. Would it be able to continue this trend this week?
An overview of the currency markets for May 19th – May 23rd 2014
Here we are again with the British pound against the US dollar, and this time we begin with a rate of 1.6809. This improved for the pound by the end of Monday, as it closed on 1.6836. However Tuesday saw it lose a little ground, closing on 1.6832 in the process. We were glad then to finish up on 1.6896 the next day, leading us to wonder whether we could edge into 1.69 territory. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and we ended up dropping back over the next two days to close on 1.6840.
So where would we end up against the Euro? The pound started things off on 1.2272 and we saw a slight rise to 1.2275 on Monday evening. Another rise was in the offing the following day, which saw the pound close on 1.2285. Indeed as it turned out there would only be one day which saw the pound drop in value, which occurred on Thursday. Finally we managed to close out the week with an impressive rate of 1.2355 on Friday evening.
Would we manage to achieve something similar against the Hong Kong dollar this week, or was there more in store? We opened on 13.030 here and immediately jumped up to 13.051 on Monday night. We slid a little to 13.049 on Tuesday but we made up for it the following day as the pound finished on a healthier 13.099. We didn’t manage to better this for the remaining two days though, as we finished up on 13.054 on Friday. At least this was still better than we had seen on Monday morning.
Over in New Zealand the pound began the week on 1.9467, so we were still a fair distance from the two dollar range we have achieved before. However we did achieve a fair amount this week as by Tuesday evening we were on 1.9628 – and this improved still further to 1.9728 on Wednesday. We dipped back again the following day before rising to close on 1.9715 by Friday evening, so we were halfway back to the two dollar territory in a single week.
Finally we have the Australian dollar to go up against. Here we began on 1.7959 and the same pattern occurred here too, with the first three days going well in favour of the pound. This saw us close Wednesday evening’s trading on an impressive 1.8308. This would be the high point but we didn’t slip back too far as it turned out. The closing rate on Friday evening was still a much better 1.8264.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another improvement against the Canadian dollar as well
The good week continued here as the pound rose from 1.8283 to 1.8357 against the Canadian currency.
More good news against the Swiss franc
Here too the result was a good one. We managed to start on 1.4985 and finish on 1.5086 against the franc.
A slight improvement elsewhere against the Chinese yuan
There was good news all round this week, it seemed. The pound started on 10.478 against the yuan and finished on 10.504.
So all in all it was probably one of the best weeks we have seen on the currency markets for a while – at least as far as the British pound was concerned. It was good to get such a wide range of good results, even if we did peak a little too early against some currencies.
The real question now is whether we could expect the same again next week or whether we have seen the best of these results already. We shall have to wait and see.