Welcome to the latest currency report, which delves into the progress – or lack of – concerning the British pound on the currency markets.
An overview of the currency markets for September 18th – September 22nd, 2017
Let’s begin by looking at the head-to-head between the British pound and the American dollar. This started on 1.3587 for the week, before falling over the first two days to reach a new low of 1.3509 on Tuesday night. There was some improvement on Wednesday, as the pound perked up to 1.3539, but it was not enough to sustain the pound. Instead, it fell to 1.3491 the day after. We did recover on Friday though, rising to 1.3568 in the process – although this was lower than the opening rate had been at the start of the week.
Moving on, the pound started trading on 1.1358 against the euro this week, so would it do better here? The first three days indicated otherwise, as we took a fall on each of those days. This meant Wednesday’s closing figure was a disappointing 1.1276 – some way from where we had begun. There was better news on Thursday though, as the pound pushed ahead to close the day on 1.1332. This was closer to the opening rate, so could it do better still on Friday? It could, and it ended up finishing on 1.1343, so at least the week hadn’t been too bad all told.
Next up, the pound got started on 10.620 against the Hong Kong dollar. But again, the first two days were less than encouraging, as it dropped to 10.542 by Tuesday night. There was better news the following day, as the pound reached 10.562, but another drop on Thursday took the British currency back to 10.529. Despite a last-minute rally to 10.596 on Friday, this was not enough to regain or surpass the opening figure we had started with.
Our next stop is with the Kiwi dollar, so let’s see whether the pound could do better against the New Zealand currency. It began on 1.8635 before taking a real hit over the first few days. We had half-expected this, given the other results thus far, but it was still disappointing to see it dip as low as 1.8354 by Wednesday evening. We did recover somewhat with two good days to close the week, but this still only left us on 1.8531 on Friday night.
With one result to bring you in this part of our report, it’s time to see how the British pound fared against the Australian dollar. We got underway here on 1.6936 and slightly improved on day one. You had to go a couple of decimal points further in though, as the opener of 1.693604 went to 1.693653. With that slight 0.003% improvement, it was no surprise to see a fall over the next two days that took us to 1.6791 on Wednesday. We did however spot another major surprise by Friday night, because the pound ended up finishing in a stronger position, on 1.7027 by then.
Notable events in the world of currency
Surprising news against the Canadian dollar
Given the results we have seen above, it might surprise you to learn the pound managed to increase its standing from 1.6491 to 1.6646 last week against the Canadian dollar.
More good news against the Swiss franc as well
Here’s another unexpected result – the pound managed to improve from 1.3039 to 1.3145 against the Swiss currency too.
Three out of three in this area, at least
While some of the results were disappointing this week, the pound managed another improvement against the Icelandic krona. It rose from 143.881 to 145.410.
So, while it looked as if this would be a washout week, it turned out to be better than we had expected. Will it continue like this for another week, or will there be more bad news to come? We can’t be certain of anything, but we shall be here to report on the outcome.