Here we are with yet another currency report for you, looking at the performance of the British pound last week. Would it be a week to remember or to forget?
An overview of the currency markets for November 6th – November 10th, 2017
The week began with a good start for the British pound, at least where the US dollar was concerned. We managed to move up from 1.3109 to 1.3132 over the first two days of trading here. Wednesday saw a slip though, and this took us down to 1.3110. Was this the beginning of a slide towards a disappointing finish? Nothing could be further from the truth, as it turned out, because we then had two more good days to close things out for the week. This meant the British pound finished the week against the US dollar on 1.3187 – an increase on the opening rate back on Monday morning.
But could we do as well against the euro? We did get off to a similarly good start, with two encouraging days to begin with. Monday morning saw the pound open trading on 1.1245 and by the end of Tuesday, we finished on 1.1358. We did then experience a larger dip than we had against the American currency though, with two drops in a row. So, by Thursday, we’d stalled on 1.1282. We did manage to recoup some of that on Friday, to leave us on 1.1316 for the week – and once again, this was better than we’d begun on.
We typically see a similar pattern against the Hong Kong dollar as we do against the American one, so would that be seen again this week? We began on 10.228 here, and in the first two days the pattern was similar. The pound climbed to 10.247 against the Hong Kong dollar. Then we had the midweek drop to 10.221, so things did look as though they were going in much the same direction. Finally, the last two days of the week took the pound up once again, this time to 10.289. So, we did manage to do well against the Hong Kong dollar here too.
You can also never be sure of getting a good result against the New Zealand dollar, even if you have against other dollar currencies elsewhere. The pound opened on 1.8889 and rose to 1.9003 by Monday night, but that was the limit of the early rises here. Over the next three days, the pound dipped to 1.8858, taking it well below its opener for Monday. We then saw the British currency recoup some ground by finishing on 1.8988 on Friday night – and this was marginally better than we had started on back on Monday.
So, where would we be left against the Australian dollar? The pound opened the week on 1.7075 before improving over the first two days and finishing Tuesday evening on 1.7165. That midweek dip we had seen elsewhere then came into play, taking us back to 1.7073. But the final two days followed the pattern seen against the US dollar, which meant the pound ended on 1.7197 this week.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement against the Canadian dollar
We did well here, rising from 1.6677 to start and reaching 1.6709 overall this time around.
More of the same against the Swiss franc
Another reasonable result came our way in this part of Europe. We began trading on 1.3084 before rising to reach 1.3116 by Friday evening.
Not such good news against the Icelandic krona
We began the week on 139.630 here, before experiencing a rough ride this week. This meant we ended it on 136.817.
So, we can see it was a mix of results last week. We hoped for better news all around, but we also recognise this is difficult to achieve. We did, however, achieve reasonable results in several places, and perhaps against some of the most notable currencies of all. So, where would this leave us for the weeks ahead? Only time will tell.