There is always some uncertainty when checking the results from the currency markets each week. Would this week be the same for the British pound, or would there be some great results there to be found?
An overview of the currency markets for August 15th – August 19th 2016
The week began with the British pound standing at 1.2966 against the US dollar. Which way would it go from here? Unfortunately, the answer was down to 1.2898 by the end of Monday’s trading. Things did get decidedly better over the next three days though, because by Thursday evening the British pound had recovered those initial losses and added a bit more on the top as well. The closing rate for Thursday night was 1.3152. It didn’t manage to hold onto that good rate, but it didn’t slip back to where it had started either – finishing on 1.3088 as a whole.
So could the pound do as well against the euro as it had against the US dollar? Here, the starting rate was 1.1621 but the first two days did not go to plan. Instead, the pound was left on 1.1486 by Tuesday night. The good news was that the next two days were rather better. The pound rose to 1.1618 by Thursday night, leaving just one day to go… and leaving us wondering which way things would turn now. Unfortunately, the pound did drop further to 1.1555, which was lower than the opening rate had been.
Over to Hong Kong now for our third stop, where the pound started trading on 10.058 this week. It dropped to 10.005 on day one, before enjoying three pretty good days, just as it had against the US dollar. Here, we managed to rise up to 10.198 by Thursday night, but once again the final day of the week was not as encouraging. In fact, the pound finished on 10.148, although that still represented an improvement on the opening rate back on Monday morning.
Onto New Zealand now, and as we know, things can be very different here. Could we put together a good performance this week? We started on 1.8009 and didn’t do at all well on the first two days, dropping to 1.7790 by Tuesday night. We then reversed that position over the next two days, going back up to 1.8098 as a result. We couldn’t maintain that performance over one more day though, which meant Friday ended on 1.8033 – slightly higher than the rate we had started the week with.
Finally, we began on 1.6891 against the Australian dollar. We didn’t manage to get a good start here, and by the time Tuesday night rolled around we were down to 1.6772. The final three days of the week were much better though, and saw us rise to 1.7191 by the time the week was done. Not a bad performance all told.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight drop against the Canadian dollar
There was some unfortunate news here as the pound dropped marginally in value from 1.6825 to 1.6810 this week.
A similar picture was seen against the Swiss franc too
Here too, we saw the pound struggle slightly. It opened on 1.2653 but ended up slipping to 1.2540 this week.
More of the same in Iceland
The Icelandic krona also got the better of the British pound last week. Here we began on 152.819 before falling back to close Friday night on 152.602.
The British pound certainly managed some better performances last week, but it was clear it could not replicate them right across the board. While there were some disappointing outcomes, we didn’t lose a lot of ground even in the areas where things didn’t go our way.
Next week may go better, but of course you never know how things will pan out from one day to the next. It remains to be seen whether we will have good news to bring you next week… or something very different.