Investors worry the exit could hurt trade and investment in the U.K. and damage the country’s financial sector, considerations that have weighed on the pound.
“The tone that Prime Minister May used has been uncompromising,” said Robert Wood, U.K. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “That’s what sterling has been focusing on for the past two days.”
This year, sterling has been among the worst-performing major currencies against the dollar. Most currencies of the Group of 10 leading industrial nations, the 10 most commonly traded in foreign-exchange markets, are up against the greenback.