While the European indices continued to suffer in light of Donald Trump’s ‘Tariff Man’ tweet, the pound decided to make the most of yesterday’s Commons humiliation of Theresa May.
Ignoring a nasty drop in the UK’s services PMI, which hit levels not seen since the months following 2016’s EU referendum, sterling instead rose half a percent against the dollar and 0.4% against the euro.
This is seemingly because the success of Dominic Grieve’s amendment on Tuesday means that the chance of a ‘no deal’ Brexit have been reduced. If – or more likely when – Theresa May’s plan gets voted down, the government then has 21 days to make a statement setting out how it proposes to proceed. MPs would then get a say on this Plan B, something that appeared to mean more to the pound than the fact the defeat dealt another potentially government-crushing blow to the PM.
Sterling’s gains made life even harder for the FTSE, which was already suffering alongside its Eurozone peers. The UK index shed 90 points, leaving it the wrong side of 6950 for the first time in a fortnight; the DAX, meanwhile, trimmed its losses to 100 points, with the CAC just about off its intraday lows as it fell 1%.
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