British Pound Hits 31-Year Low as the UK Votes to Leave the EU

• June 24,2016

The British pound slumped to its lowest level since 1985 early this morning as results of the U.K.’s vote on European Union membership came in with the leave campaign winning the vote by close to a 2% margin.

The currency tumbled to as low as $1.3460 on Friday, which was its lowest level in 31 years.

It fell about 10% from the 2016 high of $1.50, which it hit just hours earlier when most polls suggested the remain campaign had a slight polling lead. That was before polls closed.

As of this writing, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 600 points, nearly 3%, hours before U.S. markets open. Japan’s Nikkei Average, which was open and trading as the votes were counted, dropped 8% while the U.S. dollar briefly fell below 100 yen to a dollar.

Investors fled to safe havens as gold climbed 5% and briefly hit $1,330 an ounce. We will update this post in the morning as this story develops.