The Brexit row is still fizzing in Whitehall this week, with business taking the front seat for a change.
Chancellor Phillip Hammond and business leaders have had their say as the world’s wealthy meet at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
The annual get-together of the great and the good is a talking shop for the wealthy and finance ministers.
Hammond has done the media rounds to push his message that a Brexit no-deal was a default position Britain could slip into while politicians take their eye off the ball arguing about their desired positions over Europe.
But he added that the short term disruption would soon settle.
“We will find ways of managing things like the additional time it takes for trucks to get through the border,” he said.
“But it might take us quite a while to sort that out. So there will be a short-term impact through disruption. There will be a long-term impact through a reduction in the size of our economy.”
“I clearly do not believe that making a choice to leave without a deal would be a responsible thing to do, but I recognise that that is potentially a default that we could find ourselves in.”
The markets seem inured to Brexit claims and have ploughed a straight course despite the uncertainty.
Cheers! Fullers goes for £250 million
The big news at home is the sale of brewer Fullers beer business to Japanese firm Asahi for £250 million.
The company’s flagship ale London Pride goes with the deal.
Fuller’s chief executive Simon Emeny said: “This deal secures the future of both parts of our business including protecting the heritage of the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, which was particularly important to the Fuller’s board.”
Market data
| Exchange | % change | Value | Movement |
| LONDON | |||
| FTSE 100 | 0.32% | 6840.68 | 21.73 |
| FTSE 250 | 0.25% | 18673.58 | 45.95 |
| Amsterdam | |||
| AEX | 0.93% | 514.8 | 4.72 |
| Paris | |||
| CAC40 | 1.13% | 4927.15 | 55.19 |
| Frankfurt | |||
| DAX | 1.69% | 11317.95 | 187.77 |
| STOXX50 | 1.20% | 3163.91 | 37.6 |
| Madrid | |||
| IBEX35 | 0.56% | 9201.4 | 51.4 |
| New York | |||
| Dow Jones | 0.00% | 24553.24 | 0 |
| NASDAQ | 0.00% | 7073.46 | 0 |
| Chicago | |||
| S&P500 | 0.00% | 2642.33 | 0 |
| Bombay | |||
| BSE Sensex | -0.47% | 36025.54 | -169.56 |
| Hong Kong | |||
| Hang Seng | 1.65% | 27569.19 | 448.21 |
| Tokyo | |||
| Nikkei | 0.97% | 20773.56 | 198.93 |
| Shanghai | |||
| Shanghai Composite | -0.68% | 2,641.34 | -18.01 |
Source: BBC
