Welcome to another currency report where we reveal just how the pound did last week. And as you might already guess, we have very little in the way of good news to impart.
An overview of the currency markets for December 11th – December 15th, 2017
The week got underway with an exchange rate of 1.3415 against the US dollar, but the pound soon started to dip from this early starting point. In fact, the first three days of the week were anything but good. There was a steady fall day by day, resulting in a drop to 1.3350 by Wednesday evening. Thursday was better, as the pound rose to 1.3435, but it then dropped again on Friday night. This meant it finished the week on 1.3377, which was a big disappointment for those watching the progress of the British pound.
With the Brexit negotiations at a crucial stage last week, it was not a huge surprise to see the pound dropping there, too. Beginning on 1.1425, the pound dropped to 1.1331 on Monday evening. However, it then began a two-day period of more encouraging news. By Wednesday evening, the British currency had boosted its progress to 1.1375. With that said, the rest of the week would not go in our direction. Instead, the pound ended up dropping to 1.1342 on Thursday, before falling further to 1.1331 on Friday – the same rate it had achieved on Monday evening.
We began on 10.472 against the Hong Kong dollar, but there would be little in the way of good news to celebrate here either in an uncertain week. Indeed, the first three days were nothing but a series of bad news, as the pound fell steadily to close Wednesday evening on 10.421. It did receive a boost to 10.491 by Thursday evening, but we were almost expecting another drop to finish the week. That is exactly what we got too, with a fall to 10.449 to finish at a lower point than we had started.
So, would things be much the same in New Zealand as well, or would there be better news here? We can soon reveal which way things would go, because the opening rate was 1.9602, and by the end of Monday, this had dropped sharply to just 1.9318. After that, there was just one way things would go this week, and it was down. There wasn’t a single day here with a good result, and by Friday we were stuck on a disappointing 1.9039.
Since the Australian dollar often follows the pattern set against the New Zealand dollar, would we see disappointment here as well? Yes, we would – we had another five days’ worth of disappointing results here, although the overall drop was not quite as severe as it had been against the Kiwi dollar. We opened trading on 1.7846 before dropping steadily to close the week on 1.7429. So, this was far from a great week for the British currency.
Notable events in the world of currency
A midweek rise was not enough to save the pound versus the Canadian dollar
We began on 1.7220 here and dropped over two days before having two stronger days. However, it wasn’t enough to ensure we could get a good result, with 1.7075 being the closing rate this week.
More of the same against the Swiss franc
At least the drop here was not as pronounced, as the pound fell from 1.3372 to 1.3222 this week.
Finally, some good news against the Icelandic krona
We had to search for it, but we did get some good news here this week. The pound managed to rise from 140.395 to 141.089 overall, despite an up-and-down week.
So, we did have to search high and low for anything like some good news this time around. The pound is struggling to hold its own against many major currencies, but perhaps once Brexit has been fully negotiated and we are ready to strike out on our own, things will turn around. Until then, we could remain in choppy financial waters.