LONDON MARKETS: British Pound Under Pressure After Reports Of Contentious Merkel, Johnson Call
October 08 2019 - 8:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
FTSE100 index up on sterling weakness
The British pound came under pressure Wednesday as talks between
the U.K. and Germany on negotiating a Brexit pact didn't appear to
make progress.
The Times reported, citing a source in Johnson's office
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/brexit-deal-overwhelmingly-unlikely-says-angela-merkel-6m5btjwpr),
that German Chancellor Angela Merkel told British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson in a call that Northern Ireland must stay in a
customs union "forever." Other U.K. media outlets carried similar
accounts.
European Union President Donald Tusk went so far as to tweet to
Johnson, "what's at stake is not winning some stupid blame
game."
(https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1181519363783974912)
The pound skidded to $1.2221 from $1.2290 on Tuesday, and it also fell sharply vs. the euro.
The FTSE 100 meanwhile outperformed European stock market rivals
because of the pound's weakness. It nonetheless declined 0.24% to
7180.48, with markets worried about U.S-China trade talks.
EasyJet (EZJ.LN) shares skidded over 7%, as traders had hoped
the airline would have made more progress from the collapse of
Thomas Cook and strikes at rivals British Airways and Ryanair. The
company said its fiscal-year pretax profit would be at the upper
end of its previous expectations, and that current quarter bookings
are in line with last year. "We would expect some profit-taking on
reassuring results, given recent share price strength," said UBS
analysts.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 08, 2019 08:18 ET (12:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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