On news that U.K. voters had opted—by a 3.8% margin in the country's much-anticipated June 23 referendum—to leave the European Union, the pound sterling tumbled some 10% against the dollar to a 30-year low, nearly $300 billion was wiped off the value of shares and Britain's Prime Minster David Cameron gave notice he would resign.
The U.K. could be out of the union in 2018, but how the departure of a major country from the 28-nation trading bloc will affect construction and other industries still is partly a mystery.