We’re here once again to discover how the British pound fared last week. Would it do well against the major currencies around the world? Let’s find out more.
An overview of the currency markets for September 10th – September 14th, 2018
The week opened with disappointing news for the pound against the US dollar. After opening on 1.3010 the pound dipped to close the day on 1.2951. That didn’t look good for the week ahead, but as it turned out it was the worst news we would receive all week. The remaining four days showed there was only one direction to go in – and it was a positive one. The pound ended up moving ahead to 1.3100 by Friday night, so this was yet another positive end to a good week.
Could we repeat that success against the European single currency though? We experienced the same first-day dip we had against the US dollar. This took the pound from the opening rate of 1.1201 to 1.1193 by Monday night. We then had three good days to follow, which meant the pound was stronger on 1.1235 by Thursday evening. That might suggest a dip occurred on Friday, and indeed it did. However, a closing rate of 1.1207 still came in slightly higher than Monday’s opener had shown.
Over in Hong Kong, the pound started on 10.212 this week. Here, it would follow the pattern it had carved out against the US dollar. That meant a dip to 10.166 on Monday night, followed by four encouraging days from then on. This was not going to be a bad week here either. Far from it, in fact. By the time trading was over for another week, the pound had climbed to 10.279. Perhaps not as good as we’d seen in previous weeks, but it was nonetheless a good result.
We had a different picture against the New Zealand dollar though. The first three days were excellent, each seeing an improvement on the day before. From an opening rate of 1.9767, three days of good results saw the pound achieve 1.9962 by Wednesday night. While the final two days saw dips for the currency, they didn’t wipe out the gains made thus far. Instead, the dips were restricted to smaller amounts, which meant by Friday night the pound had stalled on 1.9924. That was still far closer to the two-dollar mark than it had been at the start of the week. Could we break that barrier next time around?
Finally, we should see whether a similar picture would play out against the Australian dollar. As it turned out, the pattern would be much harder to predict here. The pound got underway on 1.8167 before rising over the course of two days to 1.8311 by Tuesday evening. We then had a reversal of fortunes as the pound dipped to 1.8165 by Thursday night. This was marginally lower than Monday’s opening rate, so it was all down to Friday to determine whether we’d see a rise this week. We did, eventually, as the pound recovered to close on 1.8222.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight drop against the Canadian dollar
Disappointing news here, but at least the losses were minimal. The pound dipped from 1.7068 to 1.7041 this week.
Back on an upward trajectory against the Swiss franc
Better news on this front, as the pound went from 1.2564 to 1.2635 over the course of the week.
A week of two halves against the Icelandic krona
From an opening rate of 145.057, the pound reached 148.380 midweek. Unfortunately, those gains were wiped out by Friday night, when the pound closed on 144.125.
So, aside from a couple of disappointing results here and there, the pound had another good week all told on the currency markets. With lots to ponder in the week ahead, what could we look forward to next week? Would we attain yet another reasonable set of results? We’ll let you know as soon as we have them.