Welcome back to our next report. This would not be a week of great successes, nor of huge failures, so where would the pound sit in the results this time?
An overview of the currency markets for December 4th – December 8th, 2017
We got underway with a rate of 1.3488 against the US dollar, and by the end of Monday’s trading this had improved to 1.3525. This made what happened over the following two days a bigger shock, since by Wednesday night the British pound had dipped to 1.3377. Thankfully, the pound did manage to bounce back and enjoy a better performance over the final two days of the week. But was it enough to grab back those losses thus far? Not quite, because by Friday night, it had crawled back to no more than 1.3415.
A similarly good start occurred against the euro too, leading the pound to go from a starting rate of 1.1348 to 1.1399 last week. But again, the same pattern was seen after this. two bad days followed by two good ones led to a mix of results, with a rate of 1.1320 seen on Wednesday, and then a rise to 1.1425 seen on Friday. This was enough to lead to an overall improvement against the euro last week – and that was better than the experience we’d had against the US dollar.
So, which way would things fall against the Hong Kong dollar? The pound opened trading on 10.537 before it perked up to 10.569 on day one. We were half expecting a dip from then on, but what we got was perhaps a bigger surprise than we were ready for. In fact, the next three days were anything but promising, with a series of falls occurring. Each one was at least smaller than the last though, which meant the pound ended Thursday night on 10.451. A final improvement to 10.472 was seen on Friday to finish the week, albeit on a lower rate than Monday had begun with.
We never quite know what to expect from the pound against the New Zealand dollar, but this week it turned out it would follow a similar pattern to that seen elsewhere. The pound began trading on 1.9689 before rising to 1.9699 by Monday night. We then had two poor days followed by two good ones – a pattern we had seen against the US dollar already. Here, it meant we had an overall closing rate of 1.9602 this week – a fall of nearly a cent overall then, although it could easily have been worse.
Finally, let’s determine whether the pound would follow that pattern against the Australian dollar as well, or whether there was a surprise in store. The overall pattern here was a week of two halves, as we will shortly see. The worst half came first, as the pound began on 1.7809 before falling throughout the first two days to end on 1.7590. However, the pound then managed to have three much better days to end on, which was encouraging. By Friday, it ended on 1.7846, so we did see a tiny improvement here.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop against the Canadian dollar
The pound couldn’t do enough to rise above its opening rate here this week, as the Canadian dollar pushed it back from 1.7364 to 1.7220.
Much better news against the Swiss franc though
Here, we did manage to get a good result. The pound opened the week on 1.3267 before edging ahead to close it out on 1.3372.
More good news against the Icelandic krona as well
Yes, the pound managed some improvements here too, as it had four good days out of five. This took the exchange rate from 139.855 to a healthier 140.395.
So, this was an interesting week all told, but it does bring up the question of whether the British pound will head into a stronger week as we approach the festive season, or whether there is a dip yet to come this year.