The British pound is lower against the Swiss franc on Friday.
The Swiss franc is getting a modest bid with other haven currencies like the Japanese yen despite recent figures showing Switzerland has the highest number of coronavirus cases per capita.
The British pound is pulling back after having gained against the franc in 5 of the last 6 days after reports that post-Brexit EU/UK trade talks have been abandoned.
GBP/CHF was down by 33 pips (-0.30%) to 1.1719 with a daily range of 1.1679 to 1.1809 of 8am GMT.
The currency pair reached the 1.18 handle in overnight trading but quickly turned lower on Friday back towards 1.17. Week-to-date gains stand at +1.94%.
Pound recovers
Reports from the Guardian newspaper are that EU/UK talks on post Brexit relations have been abandoned. The reports confirm the suspicion held by FX traders that completing a trade deal by the end of the year while countries were in lockdown has become close to impossible.
Negotiating over teleconference was apparently unsuccessful, something many businesses are probably finding at the moment too. No legal text yet from the UK outlining its full plans has held back negotiations further. Presumably the UK wanted to get the EU to privately back off from some level playing field provisions before publishing. But the private discussions have happened since social distancing policies were introduced on both sides of the English Channel.
The pound had gained on Thursday when the Bank of England left UK interest rates at a record low of 0.1%, avoided the temptation to move into negative interest rates.
Havens were more in demand on Friday after data showed Chinese industrial profits crashed by nearly 40% in March. The US overtaking China as the country with the most coronavirus infections was also a source of concern.
The United States now has 85,840 COVID-19 infections as Thursday evening according to John Hopkins University, higher than Italy (80,589) and China (81,782). 1,296 people have died from the coronavirus in the US.
The Swiss franc could quickly begin to appreciate if the cases in the West don’t start to come down and the lockdowns extend beyond Easter.
