We know this will be a tough week for the pound. But just how tough would it get? Let’s see how the currency markets performed this time around.
An overview of the currency markets for May 27th – May 31st, 2019
The British pound opened the final week of May by trading on 1.2722 against the US dollar. From there, it dipped to finish that first day on 1.2679. Not the best start, but could it improve over the course of the week? The answer was no, since it stayed within the 1.26 bracket of trading. However, while the next three days produced mild dips each time, the pound did manage the beginning of a recovery on Friday. It finished the week on 1.2628.
Would anything better come about against the euro, we wondered? The pound began the week on 1.1349 here, before dropping slightly to finish the day on 1.1327. There were signs of a recovery the following day, as the pound finished Tuesday on 1.1335. Could we hope to increase by even the smallest amount each day? We edged up to 1.1338 on the following day, but that was about as far as we got. The pound ended up finishing on a lower rate of 1.1304 by the time the week was done against the euro.
Opening on 9.9858 against the Hong Kong dollar gave us the target of trying to achieve the 10.0 exchange rate once again. However, it was not to be. Instead of doing that, we fell to 9.9530 on Monday, and then again to 9.9320 the following day. We suffered further losses that took us to 9.8958 by Thursday. While we managed to move ahead to 9.8994 by Friday night, it was not enough to regain the losses we had suffered thus far.
Moving on to New Zealand, let’s see whether the British pound could be a match for their dollar. The starting rate here was 1.9412 but this soon fell too, taking the pound to 1.9375 in the process. Falling to 1.9342 the next day made us wonder whether this would be the pattern of the week, but we managed to rise to 1.9381 the next time around. While there was a more uncertain pattern here, it ended in the closing rate of 1.9329 for the pound on Friday night.
Our final stop takes us to Australia, where the pound began trading on 1.8364 against their dollar. While the patterns elsewhere this week have displayed their ups and downs, we’ve got a steady collection of falls here for the British currency. Each day brought fresh bad news, resulting in a final rate on Friday night of 1.8201.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another fall – this time against the Canadian dollar
The pound was no match for the Canadian dollar, falling from 1.7100 at the start of the week to finish on 1.7068 on Friday evening. This was only a slight drop but a drop, nonetheless.
More of the same, this time against the Swiss franc
It was clearly not the best of weeks for the British pound, as was evidenced once more against the Swiss currency. Here, we opened trading on 1.2746 before falling to close the week on 1.2633.
Could the pound do better against the Icelandic krona?
Sometimes, we need to look in unusual places to find better results. Would that be true this week as well? We began trading on 157.187, but once again the results did not go our way. By the close of play this week, we finished on 156.259.
So, it is easy to see how troublesome the currency markets were for the British pound this week. Finding any good news among those results is difficult, indeed. Perhaps we can look forward to something better in the weeks to come, but at present, finding good results is a tough ask.
We will continue to hope for better news, but given the continuing uncertainty in the UK at present, it is more likely we will continue in the same vein.