By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The pound fell sharply against the dollar on Thursday, and risks an end to its three-week winning streak as bets against sterling hit their highest in eight months amid ongoing Brexit worries.
Currency speculators have raised their bets against sterling, ING said, citing data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Bets on a decline in sterling rose to their highest since November.
Growing Brexit worries have soured sentiment on the pound as the risk of the U.K. leaving the EU without a trade deal increased, ING added. "Despite markets having become less complacent about the risk of a no-deal exit, we still see some room for additional stress to be built into sterling."
The U.K and European Union have made little progress on post-Brexit talks so far, amid key sticking points including future fishing rights in U.K. waters, foreign policy, and defense.
Both the U.K. government and the EU have until the end of the month to decide whether to extend the deadline for negotiating a trade agreement should be extended beyond the end of December.
The pound, which has recently followed risk assets higher, was also shunned in the wake of a plunge in global markets as investors assess whether equity markets have run up too fast, too soon.