It’s time for another review of the main players in the currency market. Can you predict how well or badly the British pound did last week?
An overview of the currency markets for April 23rd – April 27th, 2018
As we begin another fresh week on the currency markets, we can see the British pound begins on 1.4050 against the US dollar. Last week was promising, but it soon became clear we would struggle to maintain that performance. Three days of mild losses began the week, taking the pound to 1.3944 by Wednesday night. While Thursday was better, finishing on 1.3970, it did not prepare us for what Friday had in store. This saw the pound fall to a low of 1.3762 for the week.
After that poor showing, how would the pound fare against the single European currency? The opening rate here was 1.1414, but again we dropped to 1.1410 on Monday. Fortunately, three more encouraging days were to follow, meaning the British pound managed to finish on 1.1481 on Thursday night. With one more day to trade though, it soon became clear all the hard work would be undone on the final day. We dipped to 1.1402 to finish the week lower than we’d started it.
Would we manage anything more encouraging against the Hong Kong dollar? We had an up and down pattern coming into play here, although we would not see much good news over the course of the entire week. Indeed, Monday set the tone as the pound started on 11.022 before falling to 10.950. From then on, there were a couple of good results from one day to the next, but none could regain the territory we had started the week with. This meant Friday’s closing exchange rate was 10.801.
So, could we manage a better outcome against the New Zealand dollar? This turned into an interesting head-to-head, because we began on 1.9441 and proceeded to register four encouraging days on the markets. By Thursday night, the pound’s efforts meant we registered an exchange rate of 1.9740. Unfortunately, much of this was undone as the pound dipped to close out the week on 1.9516. However, this was still better than Monday’s opener had been.
Finally, let’s see whether the pound could gain another marginal and good result against the Australian dollar. We started on 1.8243 on Monday, before experiencing the same four good days we’d seen against the New Zealand dollar. This took us to 1.8450 by Thursday evening. If you guessed we would drop back on Friday, you are correct – however, rather than still achieving a rise for the week, we dipped below the opening rate. This dropped us to a disappointing 1.8215 for the week.
Notable events in the world of currency
A small drop against the Canadian dollar
Here, we experienced a fall from 1.7757 to 1.7729 this week – not as bad as we’ve seen in some other quarters, but disappointing nonetheless.
More of the same seen against the Swiss franc
We could see a similar picture panning out against the Swiss currency as well. While there was a strong period of exchanges in the middle of the week, the overall picture was a drop from 1.3663 to 1.3637 this week.
Another fall against the Icelandic krona
Here too, we saw how disappointing a week on the currency markets could be. We started on 139.373 and fell steadily on all but one day, dropping to close on 136.523 on Friday evening.
So, this was a troubling week all told. While some of the losses were small in nature, it was easy to see how a strong start to the week could dissolve in mere days – sometimes hours. Perhaps we can look forward to a better outcome next week, although it would seem uncertain how good it might be. Time will give us the answers to those questions. Will the British pound come out on top next week, or will we experience more disappointment over the next five-day period?