Summary British pound slumped to a three-year low against the euro Monday on Brexit talk.
NEW YORK (AFP) - The British pound slumped to a three-year low against the euro Monday after Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit negotiations would begin by March.
But Asian and European markets pushed higher helped by easing fears over Deutsche Bank s travails, after Friday s late report that the German giant could settle its US toxic mortgage securities litigation problems for around $5.4 billion, instead of the $14 billion originally reported.
US stocks, which had already counted in the Deutsche Bank news Friday, fell in profit-taking Monday.
But tech titans Twitter and Netflix both surged more than four percent on takeover speculation. Disney has been mentioned as a possible acquirer for both companies, along with possibly Google and Salesforce in Twitter s case.
Sterling dropped to 87.46 pence against the euro, the lowest level since August 2013, after May gave more details Sunday about how Britain would exit the European Union.
The pound also slid as low of as $1.2820 -- before recovering against both the dollar and euro.
"While the latest dip in sterling has partly reflected concerns over the prospect of a hard Brexit , the currency s depreciation should continue to cushion the economic impact of the vote to leave the EU," Capital Economics Jonathan Loynes said in an investors note.
Yet better-than-expected British manufacturing data, in part due to the pound s weakness, helped lift London s benchmark FTSE 100 stocks index by 1.2 percent.
In a key indicator of the strength of the manufacturing sector, the Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers index) rose to its highest level since mid-2014, according to figures Monday.
"It is... apparent that sterling s marked weakening is giving an important lift to foreign demand for UK manufactured goods," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.
Before Sunday, May had only said that Britain would not trigger Article 50 of the EU s Lisbon Treaty -- which sets a two-year clock ticking until a country s departure from the 28-member bloc -- before the end of this year.
But putting a March date on the kickoff still leaves a huge number of details about the process and end result overhanging.
"Whilst markets welcome the update (from May), there is still a great degree of uncertainty surrounding what Brexit negotiations will involve," said Ana Thaker, a market economist at PhillipCapital UK.
Among other markets, the Colombian peso fell to its lowest level since September 16 after voters rejected a peace deal between the government and communist FARC rebels.
Oil prices continued to climb following last week s tentative decision by OPEC to cut production when the group meets in November. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for November delivery gained 57 cents to $48.81 a barrel.
