European session review: GBP mixed after UK announces three-week extension to coronavirus lockdown

GBP traded mixed against its major rivals in the European session on Friday after the UK's government extended the lockdown for "at least" three weeks. The pound rose against USD, fell against AUD and NZD, and changed little against EUR, JPY, CHF and CAD.

The UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputizing for PM Boris Johnson while he recovers from COVID-19, announced that the lockdown restrictions in the UK would continue for "at least" another three weeks as experts still couldn't be sure the coronavirus epidemic had peaked. "We're now at both a delicate and dangerous phase in this pandemic," Raab noted at a news conference. Lifting the lockdown, he said, would, "risk all the progress we've made. Now is not the moment to give the coronavirus a second chance."

Meanwhile, the UK's health minister Matt Hancock announced that Britain had expanded the COVID-19 testing program. "I can today expand eligibility for testing to the police, the fire service, prison staff, critical local authority staff, the judiciary, and DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) staff who need it," Hancock told a parliamentary committee.

Comments from the UK's officials that rule out any extension of trade negotiations with the EU beyond 2020 also remained in investors' focus. The UK PM Johnson's spokesman stated on Thursday the government would not ask for an extension to the transition period. "Extending the transition would simply prolong the negotiations, prolong business uncertainty and delay the moment of control of our borders," the PM's official spokesman said. "It would also keep us bound by EU legislation at a point when we need legislative and economic flexibility to manage the U.K. response to the coronavirus pandemic."