Investing.com - The British Pound rose on Thursday following reports that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May secured support from her Cabinet for a draft Brexit deal.
The deal keeps the U.K. within the customs union of the EU for an unspecified amount of time and includes a 21-month transition period after U.K.’s departure in March next year, according to the BBC.
“The collective decision of cabinet was that the government should agree the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline political declaration,” May said outside her Downing Street residence after a five-hour cabinet meeting.
“I firmly believe with my head and my heart that this is a decision in the best interests of the entire United Kingdom.”
However, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, says there's much work still to do, and the path may be difficult.
Bloomberg said U.K. Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and fellow cabinet ministers including Andrea Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt might resign in the days ahead as they weighed up whether they can stay in May’s government to see through the proposed terms of Brexit.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.2% to 96.72.
Elsewhere, the AUD/USD pair rose 0.7% to 0.7277 after data revealed Australia added a net 32,800 jobs in October, beating estimates of a 20,000 increase.
Unemployment held steady at 5.0% while the participation rate rose to 65.6% from 65.4%.
The USD/CNY pair was down 0.2% to 6.9403 as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.9392 vs yesterday at 6.9402.
The USD/JPY pair declined 0.1% to 113.49.