Any change from one year to the next is a big one. It is no different regarding currencies either. The US dollar ended 2018 on 1.3641 against its Canadian counterpart, but how would things develop from there?
As 2019 dawned, the first week saw the Canadian dollar get the better of its neighbour. Indeed, a drop of over two and a half cents was seen in this instance, taking the US dollar back to 1.3372 in the process. The following week was far from good for the American currency either, although the significant fall of the previous week was reduced to one that ended on 1.3265 this time around.
It soon appeared as if the early falls to start the year were the biggest ones we might expect for a while. The third week of January ended with the American dollar sitting at 1.3266. Just 0.0001 up on the previous week’s closing rate, but at least it was an improvement of sorts. Pity it was no higher, for the US dollar at least.
However, the following week it seemed as if we were back to the freefall behaviour. By then, the American currency had fallen once again, this time finishing on 1.3219 against the Canadian dollar. We did see some improvement early the next week, with 1.3275 noted on 29th January. However, it was not possible to hang onto that to finish the month in slightly better fashion. Instead, it was very much the opposite, with the US dollar dropping to 1.3124 to close out the first month of the year. That equated to an overall loss of just over five cents though, so it was not a good result to see.
Perhaps February would be better, then. That was the hope. It did appear as though we could take things in that direction. By the end of the first full week, we spotted the US dollar on 1.3279 against the Canadian dollar. If we hoped that might be the beginning of a better run, we were mistaken. One week later the US dollar was stalled once again, this time on 1.3245. As February progressed, it became clear the American currency was not going to be let off the hook.
At the time of writing, we have data up to and including 27th February. That day saw the US dollar finish trading on 1.3156 against the Canadian dollar. It seems unlikely we would see the US currency get back to its 2019-opening rate in just 24 hours, especially given the progress it has made thus far. Perhaps March will be the beginning of a better performance for the American dollar, although at present it is hard to see how this trend could be reversed. We will be watching with interest to see if that might occur, however.