GBP/USD Jumps on Fisheries Comments From France

Fisheries are said to be the remaining major hangup in talks but Macron is softening. France has 20,000 fishermen and 10,000 processing jobs but about one quarter of the fish are caught in UK waters. France’s government told the fishing industry to ‘brace for impact’.

The piece says that Macron is laying the ground for a compromise on fisheries in Brexit talks.  “They asked us if potentially, really potentially we were ready to make concessions,” fisheries source told Reuters. “They asked us to think about it.”

The GBP had been bearish since yesterday, but it popped 60 pips higher after these comments. it’s not something ground breaking for the UK economy, but it means that we are a step closer to a trade deal between the EU and UK now. GBP/USD jumped above 1.31, but is pulling back down now.