EUR/GBP climbs to weekly highs above 0.86

• UK PM May asks for an extension until June 30.
• EU’s Juncker says UK will have to hold elections is withdrawal is not completed before May 23.  
• GBP weakens sharply against the greenback as well.

The British pound came under heavy selling pressure in the last hour and the EUR/GBP climbed to its highest level in a week at 0.8640. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.8630, adding 0.92% on a daily basis.

While addressing the House of Commons in  PMQs, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that they asked for an Article 50 extension until June 30 and added that they were not interested in taking part in the European Parliament election. May further reiterated that the extension would not take a no-deal Brexit off the table.  Responding to PM May’s request, European Council President Juncker’s spokeswoman told reporters that Juncker told May that the withdrawal had to be completed before May 23 and had formally warned the PM  against including a date for the extension that is after the European Parliament elections.

Reflecting the broad GBP weakness, the GBP/USD pair lost more than 100 pips from its daily tops and slumped to a weekly low of 1.3145.