Last week was quite a good one for the British pound. However, we know by now this doesn’t happen for too many weeks in a row. So, would this one be a bigger challenge than we have seen of late?
An overview of the currency markets for August 7th – August 11th, 2017
Let’s begin by looking at the pound’s position against the US dollar. We began trading on 1.3145 but it soon became clear we would not be in for a good time this week. The first three days each saw a drop for the pound, leaving us on 1.2985 by Wednesday night. Despite a slight rise to 1.2991 on Thursday, this was far from enough to save us from a disappointing week. Indeed, we dropped again on Friday, leaving the British pound to close out on a weak exchange rate of 1.2979 – some way from where we had begun the week.
Would we see something similar against the euro as well? We began by trading on 1.1076 here, before falling to 1.1028 by Tuesday evening. We did then manage to have two better days in a row, however. This took the pound back to 1.1073 by Thursday night – just shy of the opening rate. However, if you expected another drop after that, you would be right. The pound ended up stalling on Friday and dropping to 1.1032 as a result – giving us another disappointment this week.
Moving on, let’s see whether the pound could buck this trend with a better outcome against the Hong Kong dollar. We began on 10.277 here, before following the same pattern we had against the American dollar, with three poor days in a row. This took us back to 10.149 by Wednesday evening. While we managed to recoup a little the following day, taking us up to 10.152, it was far from enough to help us over the entire week. Instead, we dropped back to close on 10.148 by Friday night.
Now, it’s over to New Zealand, where things can look very different on occasion. We began trading on 1.7642 against the Kiwi dollar, and actually improved on Monday, rising to 1.7728 as a result. We dropped to 1.7684 the following day, but that was not the beginning of a slump. Conversely, we rose again over the next two days, giving us an exchange rate of 1.7875 by Thursday night. So, while we fell to 1.7815 by Friday, we had done enough to secure a good outcome against the New Zealand dollar.
With a good result to celebrate at last, could we do something similar against the Australian dollar on our final stop this week? We opened trading on 1.6490 here, before dropping over days one and two to reach 1.6411 by Tuesday night. However, if that made us wonder whether we were in for a bad week, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, we then delivered three good days of trading. This took the pound to 1.6506 by the close of the week, so while we didn’t quite replicate the level of success seen against the Kiwi dollar, we did enough to get a good result overall.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight drop against the Canadian dollar
This was perhaps to be expected, as the pound fell from 1.6526 to 1.6499 this week.
A bigger drop against the Swiss franc
Here, the pound began the week on 1.2731 before falling to close on 1.2488.
Another fall against the Icelandic krona, too
There was more bad news in store as well, because the pound slipped from 138.107 to 137.329 against the krona this week.
So, while there were a few good results to see this week, they were by no means across the board. Hopefully, we can look for some better results next week, but as we have seen, this is far from guaranteed. Perhaps we will indeed have better news to report next time, but whatever happens, you won’t miss the headlines when you visit us next week to learn more.