Pound rebounds to 1.35 in thin trading

In the Tuesday session, the British pound has reversed directions and moved higher. Currently, the pair is trading at 1.3503, up 0.40% on the day.

Pound volatility continues

The difficult and often acrimonious negotiations over the UK’s departure from the EU are finally over. The talks went down to the wire, as the UK formally departs the bloc at midnite on December 31st. The UK had been a member of the EU for almost 50 years, so the exercise feels like a divorce that the sides finally found enough common ground to break up and move on. The fact that an agreement was reached is certainly a reason for relief on both sides of the English Channel. The deal will establish the new trading relationship between the two sides and prevent the imposition of WTO rules, which would have meant tariffs and customs on goods moving between the UK and the EU.

At the same time, there are concerns about what will happen come January 1st. There are doomsday scenarios of shortages of medicines and fresh food and thousand of trucks stuck in a web of bureaucracy on both sides of the Channel. These fears have only intensified after the scene of some 6,000 trucks trapped in Dover last week when France closed its border due to a mutant strand of Covid-19.

It is true that there will be bureaucratic hurdles on commercial movement between the EU and the UK in the post-Brexit era, but it’s unlikely that the new regulations will paralyse trade or lead to shortages. Still, these concerns have weighed on the British pound, as GBP/USD fell close to 1 percent on Monday. The good news for the pound is that with so much uncertainty about a no-deal Brexit, the fact that an agreement was reached in time removed a significant downside risk to the currency. Still, talk of sterling climbing to 1.40 if a deal was reached appears premature.

.

GBP/USD Technical

  • GBP/USD faces weak resistance at 1.3543. The next resistance line is at 1.3633
  • There is support at 1.3397. Below, we find support at 1.3341
  • The pair crossed above the 10-day MA line in the European session

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Kenny Fisher

Kenny Fisher

Market Analyst at OANDA
A highly experienced financial market analyst with a focus on fundamental analysis, Kenneth Fisher’s daily commentary covers a broad range of markets including forex, equities and commodities. His work has been published in several major online financial publications including Investing.com, Seeking Alpha and FXStreet. Based in Israel, Kenny has been a MarketPulse contributor since 2012.