Welcome to this week’s report, which goes into Good Friday and the long Easter weekend. So, with the first of two four-day weeks to contend with, how would the British pound perform this time around?
An overview of the currency markets for April 10th – April 14th, 2017
The week did not start in the best way when the British pound opened against the US dollar. Opening on 1.2422, it swiftly dropped to 1.2395 by Monday night. However, this would turn out to be the worst news we would receive all week. The pound perked up to 1.2441 on Tuesday evening, thereby surpassing its opening rate for the week. We would have been happy with another two good days, then, and that is exactly what we got. Perhaps surprisingly, the pound was worth 1.2540 by the time Thursday evening rolled around and the Easter weekend began.
So, would the pound have an equally good week elsewhere as well? The currency opened on 1.1685 against the euro, and had a better day to start things off, rising to 1.1718 by Monday night. And here too, the rest of the week proved to be successful. In fact, the pound did not slip once this week against the euro. By Thursday evening, it had risen to 1.1797, which was very encouraging.
Could we do just as well against another form of the dollar, too, though? The pound began trading on 9.6521 against the Hong Kong dollar, before falling back to 9.6313 on Monday – experiencing a similar drop there as it had against the US dollar. But again, the remainder of the week was a different story – and a much better one, too. The pound did very well here, rising day after day to finally close on 9.7509 on Thursday night.
With very good exchange rates so far this week, let’s move on to see whether the same could be said against the New Zealand dollar now. We began trading on 1.7819 here, before enjoying a healthy start to the week as the pound rose to 1.7857 on Monday night. We had two more good days too, allowing the British currency to keep on rising to reach 1.8057 by Wednesday evening. So, even though we did see a dip on Thursday, taking the pound into the long weekend on 1.7906, this was still yet another good result overall.
We could surely be confident, then, ahead of examining the exchange rate against the Australian dollar. We began well, going from the opening rate of 1.6504 to 1.6546 on day one, and following that up with two more good rates. This took the pound to 1.6693 by Wednesday evening. We followed the pattern we had seen against the Kiwi dollar here, dropping to 1.6548 on the final day of this shortened week, but we still managed to improve slightly over the entire week. It had indeed been a good one.
Notable events in the world of currency
A surprising drop against the Canadian dollar
Given the good news we saw above, we were surprised to see a drop against the Canadian dollar this week. Starting on 1.6659, the pound dropped slightly to 1.6598 by the end of the week.
Back to good news against the Swiss franc
Here, at least, we had some more encouraging news to get to grips with. The pound may have started trading on 1.2498 against the Swiss currency, but it finished on 1.2606.
Another rise against the Icelandic krona
The pound had another good result to celebrate here, as it went from 139.107 to 139.669 today.
This week was a good one all told, so that slight dip against the Canadian dollar did come as a surprise. It was a slight one, though, and it paled into insignificance alongside the other good results seen in this shorter week. So, with another short week coming up next week, will the pound be able to replicate its good work here?