S&P keeps the UK steady
Last week Moody’s downgraded the UK to Aa3, which is the equivalent of AA- in S&P terms. Fitch is also at AA-.
S&P is not dissuaded by Brexit and mounting debt, evidently.

Forex news from the European trading session – 23 October 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– AUD leads, GBP lags on the day
– European equities higher; E-minis up 0.2%

Spain prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, briefs on the pandemic
There’s no saying where he is getting the headline figure from, but that is triple the amount of reported confirmed cases in Spain currently. The official tally just surpassed 1,000,000 cases earlier this week – having doubled to that in just six weeks.

Comments by UK international trade secretary, Liz Truss
For those confused by the terminology, Australia terms simply means a no-deal outcome.
This mainly reaffirms the UK’s stance ahead of talks once again. As things stand, the supposed deadline will be the end of the transition period i.e. 31 December but given how many times we’ve been down

EUR/USD aims towards the week’s highs as the dollar keeps weaker
The shift in the market mood came after the German manufacturing PMI beat earlier and since then, the dollar is finding it tough to stand its ground after having snapped a four-day decline in trading yesterday.

Comments by Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney
– I think a deal can be done
– The issues preventing a deal being finalised are very much still there
Looking past all the bluffs and political theater, they were never once ‚off track‘ to be honest. We’re back to the same situation we were at the start of October,

Forex news from the European trading session – 22 October 2020
Headlines:
Markets:
– NZD leads, GBP lags on the day
– European equities mixed; E-minis down 0.2%

Remarks by BOE governor, Andrew Bailey
There isn’t much else besides the headline comment for now, and it is likely he won’t be touching on policy at all in the panel discussion today as it pertains more towards sustainable finance and climate change.

UK government raises job support aid, cuts employers‘ contributions
here
Only time will tell if this will be sufficient or if more fiscal aid will be needed.

Latest data released by CBI – 22 October 2020
UK manufacturing orders continued to fall, but the pace of the decline in October eased despite a resurgence in virus cases. The reading is still relatively low on a historical level but this is the highest since March with CBI noting that: