Last week we saw that no matter how much you may want the pound to perform well, it doesn’t always live up to expectations. It put in a poor performance against all the major currencies last time, so the question now is whether it will do the same this week or whether it will be rather stronger than some may think.
An overview of the currency markets for August 6th – August 10th 2012
The pound started on 1.5550 against the US dollar, and immediately improved to 1.5571 by the end of the first day. There was more good news in store as well, because by Tuesday evening it had gone up to 1.5674. However this would turn out to be the best rate of the week, and the pound started to slide again after this. It did finish on a higher rate than the one it had started on though, closing out the week on 1.5598.
The pound opened on 1.2699 when it came to the Euro, but the first day wasn’t as good here. It closed out Monday evening on 1.2578, making us wonder whether this would be another bad performance. However it climbed back to 1.2603 by Tuesday night, and then it seemed as though nothing could stop it from doing better throughout the remaining days of the week. Indeed it finished Friday evening on 1.2721 against the Euro – good news there at least.
Our third stop is with the Hong Kong dollar. The opening rate of 12.058 climbed to 12.075 by Monday evening, and then the pound pushed up even further to 12.154 by Tuesday night. This was the peak of the week though, and the pound then lost ground steadily to close the week on 12.100. This was still an improvement on the opening rate though.
We started off with a slight loss against the New Zealand dollar, opening on 1.9097 and falling to 1.9008 by Monday night. If this made us wonder whether a bad week was in store, things soon picked up the following day. Indeed by Wednesday evening the pound had soared to 1.9240. There was better news to come as well, and the week ended with the currency climbing to a high of 1.9287.
However could we do the same against the Australian dollar as well? We opened on 1.4793 here, and the first day saw a marginal loss of 0.0043. We then perked up again though and managed to wrestle with the Aussie dollar to close out the week on a healthier 1.4833.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop against the Canadian dollar
There was bad news here as the pound slipped from 1.5597 to 1.5509 over the course of the week.
Slightly better news against the Swiss franc
The pound began the week on 1.5254 here and finished in slightly healthier fashion on 1.5276.
But back to disappointment against the Icelandic krona
Disappointingly the pound went from 187.094 to 186.419 against the Icelandic currency, showing how split the week was as a whole.
We’ve all heard the word recession being bandied about frequently in the past few years. But one country it hasn’t seemed to apply to is Germany. However it appears this could now change, as this story from Reuters confirms. Perhaps this is the sign that the Eurozone is in for even more trouble, if such a thing were possible.
So there we have it – another update for another week, and one which was slightly more appealing than the one we had last week. Of course one week can make a lot of difference in the grand scheme of things, and even though the pound looked stronger this week, it may not do the same next week. We can but hope this is the start of better things to come, but we shall be here again in seven days to see whether this is the case. We look forward to welcoming you back then.
Wow there was a real swing for the pound this week, wasn’t there? It’s amazing how sometimes you really can’t predict whether the pound will have a good week or not. I never can understand why it can do so well in one area and then have a rotten week in another. I suppose there are too many different factors involved for it to make much sense.