Britain and the European Union finally agreed this morning on a new post-Brexit trading arrangement, more than four years after the U.K. voted to leave the bloc. The announcement, which had been telegraphed since yesterday afternoon, and expected since the beginning of the week, removes a major risk to the global markets and avoids a potentially disastrous no-deal scenario. Needless to say that the Pound Sterling has been moving up ever since it became apparent that a deal was imminent. The Canadian dollar is up 0.2% against the US dollar as stocks and energy prices are flattish and the market works its way through a light trading day before the Christmas holiday. The last major data point on the domestic economy came in yesterday and it showed that the economy grew in October for the sixth consecutive month, up 0.4% following a 0.8% increase in September. Total economic activity is now just 4% below February’s pre-pandemic level. The October figure is consistent with the economic picture that has emerged recently. The recovery is well under way and moving faster than most imagined but it has decelerated from the more rapid pace of recovery in the previous several months.
