LONDON MARKETS: Pound Drops As High Hurdles Remain For Brexit Deal
October 16 2019 - 8:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
FTSE 100 flat; ASOS soars on results
The pound was under pressure and U.K. stocks were struggling as
investors took in headlines pointing to tough hurdles on the
Brexit-deal front on Wednesday.
The U.K. FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to 7,201.08, while the British
pound fell across as the possibly of the U.K. reaching an exit-deal
with the bloc ahead of the start of a two-day EU summit that begins
Thursday looked increasingly bleak.
EU and U.K. negotiators failed to reach a breakthrough
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pressure-is-on-for-brexit-negotiators-as-all-night-talks-fail-to-yield-a-breakthrough-2019-10-16)
in all-night Brussels talks which will continue on Wednesday. Irish
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said "many issues" must be resolved before
an exit deal for the U.K. can be reached, according to media
reports (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50063022), while an
EU official said any deal would be unlikely without more U.K.
concessions, said a Bloomberg report
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pound-slides-after-report-eu-refers-to-brexit-deal-impossible-without-uk-concession-2019-10-16).
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pound-slides-after-report-eu-refers-to-brexit-deal-impossible-without-uk-concession-2019-10-16)The
pound , which has swung back and forth in recent sessions on Brexit
headlines, fell 0.3% to $1.2751 against the dollar.
Elsewhere, shares of ASOS PLC (ASC.LN) soared 20% after the U.K.
online retailer reported a 68% drop in profit for fiscal 2019, but
said the new fiscal year has gotten off to a solid start.
"The initial share price reaction to the results reflect a leap
of faith, after management assurances that the latter part of the
year was rather more positive, to the extent that it can look
forward to the next period with confidence," said Richard Hunter,
head of markets at Interactive Investor, in a note to clients.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 16, 2019 07:48 ET (11:48 GMT)
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