Pound tumbles after early results in EU referendum

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. — (Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

After making earlier gains, the pound fell to $1.4319 as the first results of the UK's EU referendum were announced.

The pound tumbled following a narrower than expected Remain vote in Newcastle and a strong Leave vote in Sunderland, the BBC reports. In Sunderland, 61.3 percent of voters chose to leave the EU, with 38.6 percent voting to remain. One Sunderland voter, a 36-year-old taxi driver, told The Wall Street Journal he wants the UK to leave the EU and use the money it gives to the union on the national health system. "They should be spending more on our own country than giving it to other countries," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.