Pound Falls as May Seen Failing to Get Brexit Votes: Inside G-10

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The pound fell for an eighth day, the longest-losing streak in 10 months, as reports circulated that Prime Minister Theresa May is losing support for her Brexit vote and possibly her own position.

• GBP/USD slid as much as 0.5% to 1.2949 after May failed to secure significant concessions from the European Union in the latest round of talks. She should put the vote on hold, the Times said. The Prime Minister is facing increasing pressure to resign with just two cabinet ministers backing her, the Telegraph reported
• “We are now back in a situation where the inability to completely rule out a hard Brexit on March 29, and suggestions that the only way May can win support for her deal is if she commits to resign soon thereafter are having an unsettling effect on GBP," said Ray Attrill, head of foreign-exchange strategy at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Sydney

• Spot desks in Asia sold GBP/USD to trigger large stop-loss and momentum sell stops layered under the Feb. 22 low of 1.2968, according to Asia-based FX traders. A lack of liquidity contributed to the steepness of the decline, they said
  • U.K. Cabinet members are calling for last-minutes concessions by the European Union so May can get her Brexit deal through Parliament this week
  • The U.K. may end up asking for an extension on the Brexit deadline, though any delay will need to be “lengthy enough to allow time for a potential second referendum, and that all EU members will agree to this, before the coast is clear for GBP to rally back strongly,” said Attrill
• GBP/JPY is also being sold by leveraged funds ahead of the Brexit vote and broad risk-off sentiment, another trader said. The pair fell as much as 0.7% to 143.729
• USD/JPY declined 0.1% to 111.10 after dropping as much as 0.3% earlier
• Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed 0.1% after falling 0.3% Friday following worse-than-expected U.S. payroll data. Treasury 10-year yields rose 1bp to 2.64%
  • Fed interest rates can remain on hold as it waits to see how conditions abroad evolve, Chairman Jerome Powell said in an interview on CBS News
• U.S. and China talked about respecting the “autonomy” of each other’s monetary policies in trade talks, People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said, evading any pledge to hold the yuan stable
• AUD/USD fell 0.1% to 0.7039; pair is being sold on any rally toward 0.7050 with option-related offers attached to strikes at the same level as sales for macro funds, a trader said
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority bought HK$1.51 billion ($192m) of local dollars during London and New York trading hours after the currency dropped to the weak end of its trading band, it said in a statement Saturday
• Some information comes from FX traders familiar with the transactions who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly

To contact the reporters on this story: Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo at chodo@bloomberg.net;Hooyeon Kim in Seoul at hkim592@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tan Hwee Ann at hatan@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Reynolds

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