Through trading on Friday, the Pound had strengthened after Brexit optimism boosted its appeal, especially as it was announced that talks were progressing well. However, the gains were short-lived after news of a second lockdown became apparent and this was proven over the weekend as it was finally announced. At the end of the day, the currency finished the day at 1.1087 against the Euro and 1.2945 against the US Dollar according to the Foreign Exchange Market. However, now that the lockdown has been officially announced, it is likely that further pressure is going to be placed on the Pound today.
On Friday, the Euro managed to find some stability after a volatile week and this came after the Eurozone reported a return to growth during Q3. Between July and September, GDP grew to 12.7% although this didn’t bolster the Euro enough to regain some of its losses as investors still had concerns about a slowing economy as a result of increasing coronavirus cases.
The US Dollar weakened on Friday after investors took profits from the Greenback. Despite this, a risk-off mood helped to reduce USD selling. This came off the back of investors being slightly edgy about the impact of the second wave of coronavirus cases as well as the US presidential election.