NEW YORK, Jan 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The British pound rallied Tuesday after
the lower house of parliament overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa
May’s Brexit plan, while global stocks climbed.
The pound’s surge after the lopsided vote suggested traders still viewed a
so-called “hard Brexit” — one with no agreement between the EU and Britain –
– as a remote possibility.
US stocks pulled back somewhat after the British vote tally but quickly
recovered to join stock markets in Europe and Asia in moving higher following
news that China planned tax cuts to boost the economy.
Near 2140 GMT, the pound stood at 88.66 pence to the euro, compared with
89.57 and 89.15 Monday night.
Against the dollar, the pound traded at $1.2871 against $1.2704 and
$1.2864 Monday night.
The House of Commons voted 432 to 202 against May’s plan for taking
Britain out of the European Union, one of the biggest defeats ever suffered
by a British prime minister.
The negative vote had been expected but the margin was much bigger than
May had hoped. Ahead of the vote, some analysts had predicted the pound could
plunge with a one-sided defeat, such as 200 votes or more.
BK Asset Management’s Boris Schlossberg said investors simply did not
believe there was a realistic chance of a so-called “hard” Brexit.
“Markets project beliefs and the underlying belief is that nobody’s going
to be committing economic suicide,” he said.
Jeremy Stretch, head of Group-of-10 currency strategy at Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce, told Bloomberg the outcome boosted the odds of a delay, a
second referendum or even no Brexit at all.
Earlier European stock markets enjoyed cautious gains after Asia swung
higher as worries dimmed over a global economic slowdown and Wall Street
posted modest gains in the late New York morning.
Asian equity markets rebounded from the previous day’s sharp losses, with
Hong Kong and Shanghai lifted by Chinese plans to slash taxes to boost the
economy.
US stocks also pushed higher, brushing aside mixed banking earnings and an
ongoing government shutdown.
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Among individual companies, Netflix surged 6.5 percent after announcing
price hikes, including raising the cost of its most popular monthly plan to
$13 from $11.
The good mood helped lift the tech sector generally. Google-parent
Alphabet and Microsoft each rose about three percent. Apple rose 2.1 percent.
– Key figures around 2140 GMT –
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2871 from $1.2864 at 2200 GMT on Monday
Euro/pound: UP at 88.66 pence from 89.15 pence
New York – DOW: UP 0.7 percent at 24,065.59 (close)
New York – S&P 500: UP 1.1 percent at 2,610.30 (close)
New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.7 percent at 7,023.83 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 6,895.02 points (close)
Frankfurt – DAX 30: UP 0.3 percent at 10,891.79 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 4,786.17 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 3,068.05 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 20,555.29 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng: UP 2.0 percent at 26,830.29 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 2,570.34 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1413 from $1.1469
Dollar/yen: UP at 108.72 yen from 108.16
Oil – Brent Crude: UP $1.65 at $60.44 per barrel
Oil – West Texas Intermediate: UP $1.60 at $52.11 per barrel