Welcome back to our latest report on the goings on for the British pound for this week in December. How would it perform overall against other major currencies?
An overview of the currency markets for December 12th – December 16th 2016
So, as this week got underway, the British pound stood at 1.2579 against the US dollar. Where would it move to from here? The first answer was to a better position of 1.2629, but it remained to be seen whether it could maintain that throughout the next few days. It managed to stay on track initially, rising to 1.2708 on Tuesday, but that was as good as it got. The pound dropped on each day from that point, falling steadily to reach a low of 1.2443 by the time the week was over.
Would we experience the same pattern against the euro as well? We began trading on 1.1913 here, before rising over the first two days just as we had against the US dollar. This took us to 1.1977 by Tuesday night. We then dropped a little on Wednesday to finish on 1.1910, although there was better news on Thursday when the pound got back to 1.1962. We then fell again, this time to 1.1920, but this was better than the opening rate had been.
We started on 9.7616 against the Hong Kong dollar, before rising over the first two days and mirroring the pattern against the US dollar. We rose to 9.8580 by Tuesday night here. But then the pattern continued by bringing us three days of poor results for the British pound. It was only to be expected, but it was a disappointment to sink back to 9.6593 by the time Friday rolled around.
Onto other parts of the world now, and a stop off to see whether the pound could deliver some good results against the New Zealand dollar. Here, we started on 1.7567 and once again had two good days to start the week. This meant we had climbed to 1.7636 by Tuesday evening, although we then dropped back to 1.7556 on Wednesday. We did then have two much better results to close out the week, and by Friday night we were standing at an impressive 1.7751 for the week.
So, could we deliver an equally-good result against the Australian dollar too? We began trading on 1.6847 here, before having two good days once again, as we now came to expect. Even though the next two days saw some drops, taking us to 1.6877 by Thursday night, we didn’t spoil the overall good results seen across the week. Friday saw the pound finish on 1.6973, so this was a good result to get.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement seen against the Canadian dollar
We did quite well here too, as the pound rose from its starting rate of 1.6577 to 1.6640 this week.
A marginal rise against the Swiss franc
Here, the pound rose by the smallest amount imaginable this week. It started on 1.2814 and ended the week on 1.2815 – but at least it was a rise.
More good news against the Icelandic krona as well
Here too we had some more good news. We began trading on 141.341 before rising to close the week on 141.764 – marginally better than we’d started on.
So, this wasn’t a bad week for the British pound, even though there were no major improvements to be seen against any of the main currencies. We did manage to stave off any significant losses, and that perhaps was the main story to be told here.
As we look ahead to the remaining days and weeks of 2016, it is natural to wonder how things will end for the pound this year. And perhaps more importantly, how they will pan out during 2017. We shall keep reporting each week to reveal the answers you will be looking for during this time that relate to the British pound.