British Pound off 9-month peak; Brexit delay

The British pound paused for breath on Friday. On Thursday, MPs voted to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the current 29 March departure date.

The Commons will vote on her withdrawal agreement by 20 March, after previously rejecting it by 230 and then 149 votes.

Sterling fetched $1.3253, having dropped further from Wednesday’s nine-month high of $1.3380, with its fall of 0.76 percent on Thursday.

Against the euro, the pound retreated to 85.25 pence from Wednesday’s 22-month peak at 84.725.

“There has been a soft consensus in the market that theBrexit will be delayed. Things have been moving in line withthat,” said Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex at SocieteGenerale.

“But tail risk has not completely disappeared yet. The nextweek’s EU summit will probably be the climax,” he said, noting the fact that all 27 EU members must approve any extension.

The yen slipped to a one-week low of 111.83 per dollar on Thursday partly on speculation that the BOJ could make a stronger show of its readiness to ease policy further at its review ending later on Friday.

The euro eased to $1.1307 from Wednesday’s one-week high of $1.1339, in tandem with sterling.

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