Welcome to this week’s look at the currency markets, where the British pound had some work to do to achieve anything worthwhile. What did it manage to achieve this week? Let’s find out.
An overview of the currency markets for April 8th – April 12th, 2019
Our first stop is always with the British pound’s exchange rates against the US dollar, and so it will be this week too. We began on 1.3034 before edging ahead to 1.3061 by the day’s end on Monday. From there, it soon became clear we would have a week where each turn would produce an up or a down… but nothing consistent. Tuesday dropped to 1.3053 before Wednesday gave us a better rate of 1.3092. While the rises and falls continued, it did mean we ended up on 1.3076 by the end of the week, when the British pound managed to achieve enough to give us a rise over the whole week.
Starting from 1.1620 against the euro, the pound dipped to 1.1597 by the end of day one. Here, the pound also had its ups and downs, and yet the pattern was not as discernible as it was against the US dollar. The high point came on Wednesday as the pound rose to a closing rate of 1.1613. The following two days saw drops though, which meant that by the end of the week the pound was on 1.1568, some way below the week’s opener.
Perhaps there would be better news against the Hong Kong dollar. We opened trading on 10.231 here, before rising to 10.249 by the end of that day. We then saw a similar pattern to the one we’d experienced against the American currency. A fall followed by a rise and on it went from there. The high point was reached on Wednesday as we hit 10.260, but by Friday the pound had fallen to 10.255 against the Hong Kong currency. This was, however, better than Monday’s first rate had been.
Could we assume another good result against another dollar currency by considering the head-to-head between the pound and the New Zealand dollar? We could hope so, and indeed we edged ahead from 1.9360 to 1.9376 on day one this week. Once again, though, the middle of the week proved to be most impressive for the British currency. It rose to 1.9345 at this point against the Kiwi dollar. By Friday, that rate was forgotten as the pound stalled on 1.9332, proving that this time the dollar was the winner.
Finally, the pound opened on 1.8341 against the Australian dollar. This fell to 1.8329 by the close of play on Monday, and we experienced another dip the following day, this time to 1.8325. We have yet to see the lowest rate of the week on a Friday, but that was what was in store for us this time around. By the end of trading on that day, the pound had dipped to 1.8238.
Notable events in the world of currency
A marginal dip against the Canadian dollar
The pound opened on 1.7450 this week, and while it crept up to 1.7470 to close out Thursday, it fell to 1.7430 to finish the week.
Better news against the Swiss franc
We managed to do better in this part of the world. The British pound started trading on 1.3037 this week. While it achieved a week-long high to close Wednesday on 1.3125, it still managed to do better overall by finishing on 1.3108 on Friday.
Another improvement, this time against the Icelandic krona
The pound got underway on 155.085 here, before experiencing a largely positive week and ending it on 156.324.
So, we have some good news to impart this week, even though you may need to search to find it. A mixed bag is quite often the outcome of the average week on the currency markets. It is, therefore, no surprise to find some good results mixed in with some less impressive ones. What will we find next week? We’ll soon let you know.