It’s time once again to check out the currency markets for another week, to see if the British pound had a good or bad time last week. Will we have good or bad news to impart this week? Let’s delay no further and get the answers we need now.
An overview of the currency markets for September 10th – September 14th 2012
The pound finished the previous week on 1.5948 against the US dollar. By the time the first day of the new week was done, it had improved slightly to 1.5975. It managed to break the 1.60 barrier the next day, and indeed after a while we realised it was going to be a good week indeed. By the time Friday night arrived the British pound had soared to finish on an exchange rate of 1.6215.
This was good news indeed, but could the pound repeat the feat against the Euro? The starting point here was 1.2551 but the first day of trading saw the pound drop to 1.2504 rather than improving. While there was better news on Tuesday as the pound went up to 1.2534, the bad news soon set in. By the time the week was over the pound was further down than we’d hoped. It had fallen to 1.2352 in the process.
Next we have to see how the pound performed against the Hong Kong dollar. Our starting rate was 12.369 and we had a good initial day with a climb to 12.391. Indeed it turned out to be a very productive week because the exchange rate kept on climbing in our favour. By the time Friday evening arrived and the markets closed for the week we were much better off with an exchange rate of 12.569.
Elsewhere the pound began with an exchange rate of 1.9815 against the New Zealand dollar. But whereas the only way was up against the likes of the Hong Kong and US dollars, the only way here was down. Just one day after the start of the week the pound was down to 1.9719. After that it fell further with each day that passed, ending up with a rate of 1.9539 by the end of the week.
So would the pound go the same way against the Australian dollar as well? Let’s see, as we begin with an exchange rate of 1.5412. There was a slight rise on day one to 1.5442, followed by a drop to 1.5418 the next day. Clearly this would be an up and down affair rather than heading in one specific direction. Here the pound finished off the week on 1.5362, slightly down on where it had begun.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement against the Canadian dollar
The pound improved from 1.5654 to 1.5747 over the course of the week.
But bad news against the Swiss franc
We saw the pound struggling against some currencies last week and this was one of them. It fell from 1.5222 to 1.5039 throughout the week.
And good news against the Chinese yuan
This exchange fell into the promising category with the pound rising from 10.117 to 10.242.
The US dollar certainly had a bad time of it last week, which is why the pound did so well. As this news story from Bloomberg shows, there were reasons for this turn of events.
Thus as far as the British pound was concerned last week, it was a reasonably good set of results. It did not perform well against all the major currencies but it did manage to take some good results against some of them. It will be interesting to see whether this carries over into next week as well, or whether it will change as time goes on.
Needless to say we’ll be watching closely and will reveal any major results as they come our way. Do come back soon for the latest news and results concerning the British pound.