Brexit without a definite agreement, the USD currency moves up
The foreign exchange market has begun a quiet week in Europe, with both major European currencies holding patterns ahead of the important week for Brexit, while the dollar is still floating while awaiting news of a trade deal between the US and China.
The European Union must decide at a summit on Wednesday whether they are willing to push back the UK deadline beyond Friday's failure date.
The hope is that the EU will offer a kind of extension, at least to avoid triggering 'Brexit' without agreement 'which will greatly disrupt the Irish economy. But French President Emmanuel Macron signaled he wanted difficult political conditions for renewal, to ensure that the US would not disrupt the EU's agenda as he prepared to leave.
At 3:20 p.m., sterling was at $ 1.3050, up 0.1% from Friday night in Europe, while also at 1.1627 against the euro, effectively unchanged. The euro was at $ 1.1225, not far above last week's lows, not driven by weaker-than-expected German trade data which ended a sad February for the euro zone's biggest economy.
The US dollar index - which measures the greenback against a number of six major currencies - was at 96,910, supported by positive employment data reports on Friday which showed a significant increase in hiring and a slight easing of wage inflation.
The report added to confidence that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates this year and may even cut it, at least because of increased political pressure on the Fed from President Donald Trump.
However, some still feel the interest rate reduction is too much to expect.
"The data coming out of the US is quite convincing," Isabelle Mateos y Lago, head of the multi-asset strategy with the Blackrock Investment Institute, told Bloomberg TV. He added that he thought the Fed would remain "at least at the end of the year."
Elsewhere, Turkish lira remained under pressure amid signs of increasing tensions between the state and the US over its decision to buy Russian air defense systems. The US has stopped shipping equipment related to Ankara orders for F-35 fighters in response.