The British pound is lower against the US dollar on Wednesday.
The dollar initially fell in response to the United States officially losing 701,000 jobs in March but quickly turned around and rallied as a haven. The pound, by that point was already substantially lower on the day as traders faded its recent good form.
Pound versus US dollar was down by 158 pips (-1.27%) to 1.2234 with a daily range of 1.2206 to 1.2411 as of 5pm GMT.
GBP/USD was unable to make a sustained move back above 1.24 in early trading and quickly slid to below 1.23 and then eventually down close to 1.22. The end-of-week move takes the exchange rate lower for the week by -1.82%.
British pound slumps to turn negative for the week
Profit-taking was the name of the game for Sterling on Friday, capping a decent two week run that carried it off multi-year lows. Its performance against the dollar has been notably weaker this week, with 1.25 proving too much of a barrier to overcome.
The pound had been rising all week despite but turned lower before the weekend. The gains were despite a rising number of coronavirus cases and untimely deaths. By Friday, 684 people in the UK had lost their lives for the deadliest day yet in the outbreak and a big increase from the 569 the day prior.
Dollar rallies despite very weak non-farm payrolls figure
Evidence is growing that the American workforce is taking a massive hit from the coronavirus outbreak. The official job losses come on top of another weekly record number of jobless insurance claims. But the dollar is not acting as the currency for America, rather as reflection of a global desire for cash when times look difficult.
The United States lost -701,000 jobs in March according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics (BLS). But the dollar was top FX gainer on the day. In a sense the size of the job losses reported today was incidental. Whatever was reported, investors know the real figure is much much worse.
