U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May signed the official letter to the European Council President Donald Tusk to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The letter once delivered to Tusk on Wednesday at 12:30 BST, will then begin the official two-year process of the U.K. leaving the bloc.
“The triggering of Article 50 is unlikely to create an immediate sea of change,” said Tim Riddell, director at Westpac Institutional Bank, in a Wednesday note.
“This is the start of the beginning of the negotiations. Once initial bargaining position details start to ping between EU and U.K. and are dissected by the media and markets, the enormity of the task ahead may start to weigh confidence and markets,” he explained.
The Scottish parliament on Tuesday backed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s bid for a new independence referendum, to be held in 2018 or 2019. The proposal was immediately rejected by the by the British government.
Japan’s Keidanren, a business group whose membership includes Toyota, Hitachi and other large Japanese investors in the U.K., is preparing a communiqué taking issue with May’s “no Brexit deal is better than a bad deal.”
The pound was steady at $1.2449 at 7:07 am HK/SIN.
In the broader currency index, the dollar was stronger at 99.712 against a basket of currencies, above yesterday’s lows at 98.858 but still weaker compared to levels above 100 last week. The dollar/yen was trading at 111.16 and the Australian dollar fetched $0.7630.
South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics is expected to launch Galaxy S8 smartphone in New York later in the day, and in South Korea tomorrow.
Oil prices jumped on Tuesday during U.S. hours, after Libya supply was cut by a third due to armed faction action. Brent crude settled up 1.14 percent at $51.33 a barrel, and U.S. crude jumped 1.34 percent higher at $48.37.
