Unable to cling on any longer, Theresa May announced she is standing down on June 7th, setting up a potentially bitter Tory leadership battle and more uncertainty for the pound.
Somewhat naively, sterling jumped after May’s speech, rising 0.3% against the dollar and 0.2% against the euro (granted, these gains mean nothing in the grand scheme of the month’s miserable trading).
It is hard to see what the thinking is behind sterling’s rise. The chance of a no-deal Brexit has only increased, be it either through the UK bungling out of the EU because it can’t get its house in order, or because the Tories will appoint a hardline Brexiter as leader following the mass defection of voters to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party during the European elections.
Elsewhere, the European rebound picked up as lunchtime approached. Despite the pound’s turnaround the FTSE was up 50 points, nudging past 7280, while the DAX and CAC both reclaimed 0.8% apiece.
The Dow Jones should continue this growth this afternoon, the futures suggesting a 140 point climb, pushing it back above 25600. All this, seemingly, on Donald Trump’s muddled comments claiming Huawei is ‘very dangerous’ but could still feature in a US-China trade deal.
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