We hope we intrigued you with that teaser, and we will now reveal the answer to the big question we posed.
An overview of the currency markets for July 10th – July 14th, 2017
Here we go, then, and we’ll begin by seeing how the British pound faced up to the US currency last week. After opening on 1.2896 on Monday morning, we fell to 1.2874 to start the week. That wasn’t encouraging, but Tuesday was better as we increased the rate to 1.2913 by the close of play. Another drop followed at the midweek point though, taking the pound back to 1.2874 again. Could we remedy that in the two remaining days left to us? We could, because after two good days, we finished on 1.2974 on Friday evening. That was considerably better than the opening rate, so we started in good form this week.
Could we repeat that good form against the euro as well? We opened on 1.1300 here, before rising to 1.1322 by the time we’d completed two days’ worth of trading. We then dropped back to 1.1245 in a shock fall on Wednesday, leaving us uncertain of where the remainder of the week would take us. The good news was we wouldn’t be fretting for long. By the time the remaining two days had been completed, we ended up finishing on a healthy 1.1365 for the week.
Next, it’s on to Hong Kong, where the British pound began on 10.073. We didn’t begin well, falling to 10.059 on day one, but we were encouraged by an increase to 10.086 on the second day. It turned out we would follow the pattern we had seen against the US dollar, though, which meant another fall on Wednesday – this time to 10.056. The best two days were saved for last, thankfully. By the time trading had been completed for the week, the pound was reaching a height of 10.130 against the Hong Kong dollar.
Our next stop takes us to the realm of the New Zealand dollar. We began on 1.7707 here, and the pattern repeated itself to start with, as we increased in value against the Kiwi dollar over two days. This took us to 1.7876 by Tuesday evening, before that same drop occurred on Wednesday, reducing our standing to 1.7798. We dropped again on Thursday too, here, taking us down to 1.7659. Could we achieve something better to finish the week? Yes – because we finished on 1.7759 on Friday, and that was better than the week’s opener had been.
Finally, the pound started trading on 1.6958 against the Australian dollar. We saw a marginal increase on day one that didn’t show in the four decimal places we review on, but the following day took the pound up slightly to 1.6970. Unfortunately, while our performance against other currencies had enjoyed a good end to the week – sometimes after a midweek blip – the same wasn’t the case here. Instead, the pound dropped throughout the remaining three days and finished on 1.6719.
Notable events in the world of currency
A big drop against the Canadian dollar
The pound didn’t do well here this week, falling from 1.6732 to 1.6507 by the time trading was over.
Better news came against the Swiss franc
This was better, with the opening rate of 1.2411 increasing to 1.2560 by the time the week was done.
Ups and downs against the Icelandic krona
We began on 134.289 here, before rising to 138.091 midweek, and then dropping to 135.153. At least the overall result was a good one.
So, there you have it – a week where most of the results were quite good. But it was a week punctuated by the odd notable drop, and one or two results that were more impressive than the rest. We’ll be watching to see whether this pattern repeats next week, or whether the pound experiences something entirely different. It should be fun to see where we go next with the British pound.