Welcome back to the latest currency report, fresh and ready to be read. We challenge you to find a sliver of good news for the pound this week, such is the state of the currency markets at present.
An overview of the currency markets for May 28th – June 1st, 2018
Let’s begin by assessing the performance of the pound against the American dollar. We began the week trading on 1.3336 before dropping to 1.3312 on Monday. The following day brought another drop, this time to 1.3263. Fortunately, it was on the up after that, at least until Thursday evening, by which time the pound settled on 1.334. Unfortunately, it didn’t end the week on a better value than it had started it with, thanks to a last-minute drop to 1.3308.
We got a very different start against the euro, with two strong days to start with. This took the British pound from its opening rate of 1.1423 to 1.1475 by Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, we then found the remaining days of the week did not go in our favour. By the time Friday night arrived, the euro had pushed the pound back to 1.1405. Not a huge difference from the opening rate, but it was still a fall all told, and not good news for us.
We began the week trading on 10.462 against the Hong Kong dollar, so which way would things go here? It turned out we got a poor start, with two days of falls to begin the week. This meant we finished Tuesday evening on 10.405 – not a pleasant position to be in. The next two days were rather better, as the pound put in some hard work to finish in a far more encouraging 10.471. However, as you might just guess, there was a slight drop on Friday that meant the pound ended the week on 10.441. Again, this wasn’t too far off the opening rate this week, but it was still a disappointing drop to see.
We simply never know what to expect from the pound’s performance against the New Zealand dollar. This can often be where big changes are seen, and that would prove the case once again this week. But would they be positive or negative changes? We began on 1.9284 before falling to 1.9157 that day. A slight rise to 1.9176 came next, but it took all day Tuesday to achieve it. Two more bad days followed, and while Friday was more encouraging, it was a case of too little, too late. We finished on a disappointing 1.9088.
We ended up with a similar picture against the Australian dollar too. The opening rate for the week was 1.7619, sliding slightly to 1.7618 that day. Even though we edged up to 1.7633 on Tuesday night, we struggled for much of the rest of the week. However, Friday saw a better result for the pound, and it meant we finished slightly up on the whole week, on a rate of 1.7671.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight drop against the Canadian dollar
Here too we had bad news, but thankfully it was only a marginal drop from 1.7278 to 1.7269 this week.
A bigger drop against the Swiss franc
The pound didn’t manage to cope well here either, with a drop from 1.3243 to 1.3151 this time around.
A steady fall throughout the week against the Icelandic krona
Here too there wasn’t much good news to be had. Other than a slight improvement on Tuesday, the overall trend was down. The pound dropped from 141.421 to 139.256 this week.
So, this was far from a good week for the British currency. It is difficult to know where things will go from here, but it is wise to remember the markets can change on a dime – quite literally, in this case. If you are keen to keep an eye on what is happening, make sure you return next week to find out whether the pound managed to put in a better performance.