Pound down after British parliament delays crucial vote on Brexit deal

The British pound fell against the U.S. dollar on Monday in Asia after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to win parliamentary backing for his divorce deal.

The GBP/USD pair fell 0.4% to 1.2912 by 12:10 AM ET (04:10 GMT).

U.K. lawmakers voted on Saturday to withhold on Johnson’s deal. Despite the delay, markets remained confident that a no-deal exit from the EU would be avoided.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC overnight that he was confident enough lawmakers would back the deal this week.

“The weekend’s events, if anything, have further reduced the risk of disorderly exit,” said Adam Cole, chief currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets, in a Reuters report.

“If there is a knee-jerk negative reaction in the pound as we emerge from the weekend with a greater overhang of uncertainty than hoped and some of the long positions are unwound, it should be faded soon.”

Goldman Sachs said on Sunday that it lowered the probability of a no-deal Brexit to 5% from 10%.

The EUR/USD pair slipped 0.1% to 1.1160. The European Central Bank’s policy decisions are due on Thursday.

The USD/CNY pair traded 0.2% lower to 7.0678.

Sino-U.S. trade tensions remained in focus. China Vice Premier Liu He said it has made “substantial progress” with the U.S. and that the two sides “laid the foundation for a phase one agreement.”

It was reported last Friday that China’s gross domestic product grew 6% annually in the third quarter, which was the slowest rate in 30 years. The news comes on the back of China trying to get more concessions from the U.S. before it signs a temporary phase 1 deal agreed on last week.

The U.S. Dollar Index Futures inched up 0.1% to 97.062.

The AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair gained 0.1% and 0.2% respectively.