The currency markets are always full of surprises. This week would be no different, as you are about to discover.
An overview of the currency markets for October 23rd – October 27th, 2017
The week got underway with the British pound facing the US dollar at an exchange rate of 1.3186. However, the first two days each resulted in a marginal loss for the British currency. Note the word marginal though – by Tuesday night the pound had stalled on 1.3169, so at least the damage was minimal. There was an improvement to 1.3259 the following day, which was more encouraging, but unfortunately that was as good as things would get. Finally, the drop we somehow knew was in store happened over the final two days of the week. By the end of Friday, the pound had fallen to 1.3093.
Would we experience a similar event against the euro? We opened on 1.1157 here, and day one was much better. It resulted in a closing rate of 1.1224 – a rise of 0.598%. However, it soon became clear the pound would not enjoy an easy ride here. Instead, it experienced an up-and-down pattern that prevailed throughout the entire week. The highest rate was seen at the last moment though, which was good news at least. It meant the British pound ended the week on 1.1282 against the euro.
Moving on now to the Hong Kong dollar, the pound began trading on 10.289 this week. But as with the US dollar, the first two days were not good. They meant the pound slipped to 10.279 by Tuesday evening. The pattern we’d seen against the American currency continued throughout the rest of the week as well. It progressed to 10.347 on Wednesday… before hitting a slump to play out the remaining two days. This resulted in a closing rate of 10.217 this week.
Our next stop will reveal how the pound fared against the New Zealand dollar. Another dollar currency, another poor result? Well, we opened on 1.8840 before enjoying three strong days that took us to 1.9264 by Wednesday evening. Was this enough to bear a couple of not-so-good days towards the end of the week? It seemed so, because we ended up with a drop that only took us as far as 1.9152 on Friday – still far better than Monday’s opener had been.
Finally, we shall see whether the pound did well against the Australian dollar last week. We opened on 1.6798 here, and once again we had three encouraging results to begin the week. We finished Wednesday evening on 1.7193 before dipping to 1.7130 on Thursday. However, Friday had one more good result in store. This saw us rise to 1.7144 to complete the week.
Notable events in the world of currency
Much better news against the Canadian dollar
This was an impressive result. The pound began trading on 1.6474 this week before rising as far as 1.6879 by the end of it.
More to celebrate against the Swiss franc
Here too we had some good news. The pound began the week on 1.2939 and finished it on 1.3123.
Still more good news versus the Icelandic krona
The result here was not as stunning, but it still saw the pound increase its standing from 138.903 to 139.158 this week.
So, all in all this was an encouraging week for the British pound. We did see a loss or two among all the good news, but even the losses were minor compared to some of those we have seen in the past.
It remains to be seen whether this could continue for another week, or whether we shall have very different news for you next time around. However, if you are prepared to return next week to learn more, we shall have the latest results for you then. With so much to consider and look forward to, we’re betting next week could be just as interesting as this one.