Welcome to our latest currency report, which this week takes us into May, and the promise of some better weather. But will we experience a more changeable scene on the currency markets?
An overview of the currency markets for April 30th – May 4th, 2018
As we came to the end of April, we saw the British pound open this week on 1.3762 against the US dollar. It then fell to 1.3732 to finish the last day of the month, before progressing through several other poor performances as we ushered in the first few days of May. This week at least, there would prove to be no enhancements or improvements for the British pound, not against the US dollar anyway. By the time the week was done, we were on a far lower – and more disappointing – 1.3564.
It soon became clear that disappointing pattern would pan out again this week, this time against the euro. Once again, we saw no improvements over the space of the five-day week. We opened trading on 1.1402 and immediately saw a drop to 1.1368 on day one. Following that, there was nothing but more of the same. The one silver lining here was that we did not need to witness as large a loss as we had against the US dollar. Instead, we dropped to 1.1333 by the time the week was up.
As we make our third stop of the week, we realise the pattern was becoming more entrenched. Once again, we would see no improvements against the Hong Kong dollar. From an opening rate of 10.801, we ended up dropping steadily throughout the week, falling to reach a closing rate of 10.647. Once again, there was a feeling that things could have been worse here, but the news was still far from impressive.
So, can we comfortably predict a loss against the New Zealand dollar as well? Possibly, but things are rarely predictable against this currency, as you may have noticed. We did see a slight deviation from what had already become this week’s normal, but before that occurred, we had four disappointing days to get through. We began on 1.9516 against the New Zealand currency, before falling steadily to reach a low of 1.9325 on Thursday night. This was altered slightly by a rise to 1.9342 to close out the week, but at least it was the first sign of the pound performing better than we had seen it all week.
But we shan’t keep you in suspense, because we soon reverted to the same pattern of continual losses as we looked at the pound’s performance against the Australian dollar. We opened on 1.8215 here, and once again it soon became obvious we would not do well this week. Instead, we were met with another steady stream of losses. By the time Friday’s markets closed, the pound had slid to 1.8037.
Notable events in the world of currency
More of the same against the Canadian dollar
We weren’t expecting good news elsewhere, and we didn’t find any against the Canadian currency. Here, we dipped from 1.7729 to 1.7464 – quite a drop.
Another loss against the Swiss franc
Would it surprise you to learn we fell from 1.3637 here to 1.3543? We thought it might not. The pound was struggling almost everywhere this week.
Finally, some better news against the Icelandic krona
We had to dig deep last week to locate any good news, and this is where we found it. The pound went from 136.523 to 138.801 – the best news we had all week.
Well, finding good news was a tough ask last week. It does mean we stand a reasonable chance of viewing even the smallest improvements as good news next week though. Maybe we have some excellent news in store, or perhaps we will experience more of the same. For the sake of the British pound, we hope it is not the latter. Further drops might be cause for concern on the currency markets.