The first weekend of Boris Johnson’s premiership was dominated by talk of a no-deal Brexit, from the ramping up of preparations and propaganda, to MPs stating they will stand against an agreement-free exit.
It is effectively a worst-case-scenario end to July for the pound, one that sets up 3 months of intense Brexit anxiety heading into All Hallows’ Eve. Against the dollar – which is facing its own headache this week in the form of a Fed rate cut – it fell 0.4%, sending cable under $1.234 for the first time in over 2 years. Against the euro, meanwhile, a 0.3% decline left sterling back below €1.11, completing the reversal of the gains made against the single currency in the last couple of weeks.
The FTSE used a bent and broken pound as a stepping stone towards 7600, the index sat just shy of that key level after climbing half a percent. In contrast, the DAX dipped 0.1%, leaving it back at 12400, with the CAC trickling under 5600 after falling 0.3%.
It wasn’t only sterling’s struggles boosting the FTSE on Monday. Investors got their finest silverware out to tuck into news that Just Eat (LON:JE) – currently caught in a battle for the UK delivery market with Uber (NYSE:UBER) Eats and the potentially Amazon-partnered Deliveroo (results of a competition watchdog inquiry pending) – is in talks to be taken over by a Dutch firm, the bluntly-named Takeaway.com. Though Just Eat was keen to stress that there was ‘no certainty’ of a deal, it has reached an ‘agreement in principle’, with the stock quick to celebrate the announcement, shooting up nearly 25% to near £8 for the first time in almost 5 months.
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