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Brexit optimism was no where to be found, and when combined with some late week dovish comments from a BOE monetary policy committee member, traders pushed Sterling to finish as the worst performing major currency of the week.

United Kingdom Headlines and Economic data
Monday:
- Visa’s UK Consumer Spending Index shows spending down -1.3% y/y in August
- Boris Johnson seeks Brexit deal progress in New York talks
- UK’s top court to rule on Tuesday on Johnson’s parliament suspension
- EU’s chief negotiator calls Johnson’s backstop solution ‘unacceptable’
- UK PM Johnson says: don’t expect Brexit breakthrough in New York – Johnson’s lack of optimism was likely the spark that fueled the broad sell off in Sterling pairs during the early morning London session.
Tuesday:
- Michel Barnier: ‘No reason’ for optimism in Brexit talks
- U.K. Borrowing (public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks, PSNB ex) in August 2019 was £6.4 billion
- U.K. Manufacturing output steady while orders slump
- MPs to return immediately in wake of supreme court ruling – The Supreme court ruling that PM Johnson’s suspension of Parliament was unlawful brought in Sterling buyers as it raised the chances that a no-deal Brexit could be avoided now that the MP’s have more time to work against it.
Wednesday:
- Gross U.K. mortgage lending across the residential market in Aug 2019 was £24B, 3.2% lower y/y
- U.K. Retail sales fall for fifth month in a row – CBI Distributive Trends Survey
- PM Johnson faces hostile parliament as Brexit chaos deepens
- UK will seek an election shortly, Attorney General says
- UK Liberal Democrats to try to remove no-deal Brexit threat more quickly
- Ireland tells Boris Johnson it needs to see his Brexit plans by next week as deadline looms
Thursday:
- Boris Johnson condemned as lawmakers receive death threats over Brexit
- UK PM Johnson says he will not ask for Brexit extension
- EU still awaits ‘legal and operational’ Brexit ideas from UK: Barnier
- Brexit delay law is ‘not perfect’, says junior UK minister
- UK parliament speaker says election cannot happen before October 31
- UK lawmakers vote against parliament adjourning for Conservative conference
Friday:
- Jean-Claude Juncker: A no-deal Brexit would be Britain’s fault
- UK Consumer Confidence improves two points to -12 for September 2019
- Brexit uncertainty ‘could lead to interest rate cut’
- Bank of England hawk Saunders says rates could be cut even if UK gets Brexit deal – This was likely the catalyst for the final spike lower of the week for Sterling pairs.