The pound made gains on Friday but ended the week with the biggest weekly fall since the December election as once gain the fears of a no-deal Brexit weighed on the pound. The UK government has repeatedly said that it will not follow EU regulatory alignment. To add to the perception that upcoming negotiations will be tense, the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that British financial services firms will not be given access to EU markets after the transition period unless they agree to respect EU rules.
The pound rose 0.1% against the dollar but finished the week with a 2% drop. Against a weaker euro, sterling gained 0.3%.
GBPUSD opened at 1.2930 and made slight gains across most of the day to reach a high of 1.2947 before dropping sharply to a late evening low of 1.2885
GBPEUR opened at 1.1791 and rose to a morning high of 1.1810 before dropping in the late afternoon to a low of 1.1772
The dollar jumped to a four-month high against a number of currencies on Friday as strong US non-farm payroll numbers ended a week of generally positive data. Investors feel comforted that interest rates are unlikely to change. The dollar index rose 0.2% and made its largest weekly percentage gain in over two years. The resilience of the US jobs market confirms that the economy is expanding.
The dollar was lower against the safe-haven Japanese yen amid ongoing fears about the coronavirus outbreak in China. The Federal Reserve is concerned the virus could affect global growth. The dollar gained 0.3% against the Swiss franc and 0.1% against the Canadian dollar.
German industrial output recorded its biggest decline in a decade in December and the euro fell 0.3% against the dollar on the back of this.
EURUSD opened at 1.0966 and had fallen slightly by the end of the day, closing at a low of 1.0949
