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Pound Slides as Parliament Fails to End Brexit Impasse Once More

Pound Slides as Lawmakers Reject May's Brexit Divorce Plan Again

(Bloomberg) -- The pound headed for its worst month since October against the dollar after U.K. lawmakers voted down Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan for a third time.

Sterling slid Friday to a three-week low immediately after the vote result, before paring losses. The failure of May’s last-ditch effort to get her deal through Parliament leaves the U.K. with the choice between crashing out of the European Union without a deal in two weeks and seeking a long extension of its departure date. The British parliament will vote Monday on various alternatives to May’s agreement.

Pound Slides as Parliament Fails to End Brexit Impasse Once More

Sterling is still the best Group-of-10 performer of the year but coming months look more challenging with no respite in Brexit uncertainty. Implied volatility on two-week pound-dollar options, which cover the current April 12 deadline for the U.K.’s exit, have surged to the highest level since the immediate aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum amid increased anxiety about a no-deal outcome.

“From our perspective, we think sterling has been trading with the benefit of the doubt for long enough,” said Ned Rumpeltin, the European head of currency strategy at Toronto-Dominion Bank. A close below $1.30 this week “points to renewed pressure on sterling into Monday’s second round of indicative votes in Parliament.”

The pound fell as much as 0.5 percent Friday to $1.2978, the lowest since March 11, before edging back up to $1.3026. It weakened 0.2 percent to 86.18 pence per euro. The yield on U.K. 10-year government bonds was little changed at 1 percent.

The European Council’s President Donald Tusk called an emergency EU summit for April 10, ahead of the current deadline for Britain to leave the bloc. A no-deal Brexit in two weeks’ time is now “likely”, according to an EU spokesman.

While it’s not clear yet exactly what will be on the ballot paper on Monday, a majority is expected to be found for a softer Brexit, likely involving a customs union. This option was the closest to gaining lawmakers’ approval in a prior ballot on Wednesday.

“If they cannot form a consensus Monday about an alternative I would begin to worry,” said Rabobank strategist Jane Foley. “Monday is extremely important. Today is a necessity, that deal has to be declared dead for MPs to move on and find something fresh.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Charlotte Ryan in London at cryan147@bloomberg.net;Anooja Debnath in London at adebnath@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ven Ram at vram1@bloomberg.net, Anil Varma, Neil Chatterjee

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