Investing.om - The pound slumped in Asia on Monday on concerns the country's exit from the European Union will be a bumpy ride and markets were roiled by comments from President-elect Donald Trump on remarks aimed multiple topics from nuclear weapons to Brexit and the outgoing CIA chief and satire of his style on television show Saturday Night Live.
GBP/USD traded down 1.02% to 1.2050, after hitting as low as $1.1983, a level not seen since the flash crash of early October. USD/JPY changed hands at 114.29, down 0.22%, while AUD/USD traded down 0.15% to 0.7489.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May scheduled for Tuesday where she is expected to announce a hard exit from the European Union.
May will announce a “clean and hard Brexit” and prepare to pull the U.K. from the European market and the European customs union in exchange for the ability to control immigration laws and leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, the Sunday Times reported Sunday.
Japan's core machinery orders fell in November at the fastest pace in seven months by 5.1% in November from the previous month, data showed on Monday, more than the median estimate for a 1.7% decline.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last quoted up 0.22% to 101.39.
On Monday, U.S. financial markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Day and elsewhere, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is due to speak at an event in London.
Investors will be looking ahead to Tuesday’s keenly anticipated Brexit speech and Thursday’ policy announcement by the European Central bank.
Last week, the U.S. dollar fell against the other major currencies on Friday and the dollar index posted its largest weekly decline since late October as optimism cooled over President-elect Donald Trump’s economic policy proposals. However, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.6% in December, while November’s sales were revised up to show a 0.2% increase.
But the dollar retraced gains amid uncertainty over the incoming Trump administration’s plans for fiscal stimulus, deregulation and tax cuts.