Pound hits 7-week high on eve of vote

The British pound yesterday hit a seven-week high against the dollar as UK Prime Minister Theresa May delivered an upbeat speech on the eve of a key Brexit vote which she is expected to lose, dealers said. Sterling bounced as high as $1.2879, a level last seen in late November after May issued a last-ditch plea for lawmakers to back her European Union divorce deal on Tuesday. The European single currency dropped to 88.96 pence, the lowest level since early December.

World stock markets meanwhile buckled as investors seized on poor Chinese economic data which stoked renewed fears of a global slowdown. “We all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum,” May said in an address to factory workers in Stoke, a Brexit-backing city in central England.

The embattled British leader, who is widely expected to lose the House of Commons vote by a considerable margin, said failure to deliver Brexit would be “catastrophic” for British democracy