Here we are with the first full week of December to focus on. Let’s find out whether the pound came out of it in good shape or not.
An overview of the currency markets for December 7th – December 11th 2015
The week got underway on a rate of 1.5139 for the British pound. The first two days did not go well against the US dollar though, and by Tuesday evening the pound had dropped to 1.4956. Was this the beginning of a really bad week, or was there a different picture in store for the remainder of the week’s trading? The answer, thankfully, was the latter. Over the final three days of the week the pound managed to claw back what it had lost on the first two days – and it managed a little more than that too. This led it to finish on 1.5157 all told.
But could it do better – or at least mirror that outcome – against the euro? The pound opened on 1.3886 here, before rising to 1.3933 by Monday evening. However, it then experienced a shock drop to 1.3753 the very next day – a significant drop in just one day. The good news was that the remainder of the week was rather better. The pound managed to push ahead and gain a closing rate of 1.3842 by Friday evening, so it did at least regain most of those early losses.
It soon became clear that a similar picture was in place against the Hong Kong dollar too. Here, the first two days were far from encouraging. The pound opened on 11.733 on Monday, and by the time Tuesday evening arrived, the pound closed on 11.592. This was however the lowest point of the entire week. After that, the pound managed to claw back its losses and ended up rather better off for it as well. By Friday evening we were looking at a better rate of 11.748.
In New Zealand, however, the pattern was rather different. The pound opened on 2.2662 and dropped back to 2.2596 by Tuesday night. We may have thought we would then have some good days to close out the week, as the pound rose to 2.2778 on Wednesday evening. However, a sudden drop to 2.2378 on Thursday night was not good. While the pound did manage to crawl back up to 2.2505 by Friday night, it wasn’t enough to reclaim all the losses up to that point.
Finally, let’s see whether the pound would have a better time of it against the Australian dollar. The starting rate here was 2.0690 and once again we had an initial drop to 2.0689 – minor though it was. Two good days followed, taking us to 2.0937 by Wednesday night. The pound gave us a fright on Thursday, falling to 2.0732, but it turned out it still had enough to get us through the remainder of the week. It actually managed to finish in a healthy state on 2.1013 by Friday night.
Notable events in the world of currency
Great news against the Canadian dollar
The pound was in great shape in this part of the world. It opened on 2.0191 against the Canadian dollar, before rising steadily to finish on an impressive rate of 2.0711.
A drop against the Swiss franc
The picture was not as encouraging here. The pound opened on 1.5111 before gradually falling away over the week as a whole, finishing on 1.4976.
Another drop for the pound versus the Icelandic krona
Here too the news wasn’t good. At least the drop was not as pronounced as it was against the Canadian dollar, as the pound went from 196.341 to 195.309.
So you can see this week was all about surprising results, at least here and there. The situation against the Canadian dollar in particular came as a surprise, as the pound rose by more than five cents across five days. Would we manage to replicate that over the next week? It’s unlikely, but you never know what might happen on the currency markets.