Sterling fell against a resurgent dollar and London’s Ftse 100 was weighed down as jitters about Britain crashing out of the EU with no deal returned to trouble investors.

European shares rose slightly yesterday, reversing initial losses, as anxiety over political stability in Italy appeared to ease just hours before a cabinet meeting to set budget targets.

While most London-based bankers are brushing up on their German to prepare for a move to Frankfurt post-Brexit, senior staff at French investment banks expect to say ‘oui’ to government pressure to bring jobs home to Paris.

France has placed finances above everything in a bid to host Rugby World Cup 2023 ahead of rivals Ireland and South Africa, writes Barry Coughlan of the Irish Examiner.

Stocks and the dollar fell while the Japanese yen, gold and sovereign bonds rose after North Korea’s most powerful nuclear test to date dampened investor appetite for risk.

After the euro surged through a critical technical level last week, analysts who study charts to help guide their predictions are looking back to 2010 for perspective on how high it could rise.

French stocks outperformed upbeat European indices following a convincing parliamentary majority for President Emmanuel Macron, while the banks bounced following upgrades and the country’s retail sector recovered from last week’s losses.

The Government is on course to sell up to €3bn worth of shares in AIB in late May — providing that the outcome of looming French election does not disturb banking markets.

Vestia, one of the largest Dutch housing co-operatives, said it had filed a large claim against Deutsche Bank, alleging the bank had improperly sold it interest-rate derivatives.

Heineken is in advanced talks to buy Punch Taverns for £386m (€460m), competing with one of the chain’s founders to expand its network of British taverns.

European Union regulators have fined banks JPMorgan, HSBC and Credit Agricole a combined €484m for colluding to manipulate the price of financial products linked to interest rates.

Oil fell below $45 in New York yesterday as an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) deal to curb output appeared in jeopardy after Iran and Saudi Arabia failed to bridge differences.

UK prime minister Theresa May will “move heaven and earth” to trigger Article 50 and start its divorce talks with the EU by the end of March, but there is no disguising that London is badly prepared for the looming negotiations, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon told a business gathering in Dublin.

Sterling was near a record low in trade-weighted terms yesterday as the start of a High Court hearing on a bid to give MPs more of a say over Britain’s exit from the EU added another layer of uncertainty to the process.

Budget fashion firm Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) generated a slightly bigger rise than expected in sales last month, offering some support to company guidance that results in the second half of the year were likely to be stronger than in the first.

The euro reached a three-week low after the ECB president Mario Draghi refrained from announcing any expansion to its bond-purchase programme and said officials will wait until the economic impact from Brexit is clearer.

London’s seven-year housing boom may be about to end after the UK voted to leave the EU.

The value of UK funds’ assets under management has dropped by more than $40bn (€36bn) in the three weeks since Britain’s vote to leave the EU, largely due to the plunge in the pound, fund flows data company EPFR said yesterday.

Europe urgently needs a €150bn bailout fund to recapitalise its beleaguered banks, particularly those in Italy, said Deutsche Bank’s chief economist in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

During World War Two, Winston Churchill became convinced that Italy would turn out to be the weak point of occupied Europe, and so it proved in 1943.

Uncertainties caused by Britain’s vote to leave the EU will cause eurozone economic growth to decelerate to 1.4% in 2017 from 1.6% this year, and downside risks are piling up, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday.

It won’t surprise any market-watcher to learn that in the run-up to earnings season, companies tend to lower the bar for top and bottom line performance, thereby giving themselves better odds of exceeding analysts’ expectations.

Investment bank UBS has told clients to brace for possible trading hiccups while money transfer firms are also suspending services amid fears of dramatic currency swings caused by the Brexit vote.

European equities are trailing US shares this year in performance and valuation while seeing outflows of $36bn (€31.7bn) and rising volatility as investors slash exposure to the region, spooked by the vote on UK membership of the EU.

Oil climbed to a six-month high as Goldman Sachs said the market moved into a deficit earlier than expected following supply disruptions in Nigeria and an increase in demand.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, intends to sell the Eastern European brewing assets of SABMiller to secure regulatory approval for its $100 billion (€88.2bn) takeover of its rival.

Danone is predicting stronger than expected Q1 sales and said it is on track to deliver higher sales and profits this year.

Swedish fashion retailer H&M has said headwinds from the strong dollar will ease by the end of 2016.

Investors were warned that the worries about global growth and the health of Europe’s banks that sent markets reeling at the start of this year have not gone away.

As Mario Draghi prepares to ramp up debt purchases starting Friday in his biggest assault against eurozone deflation risks, he’s about to get another sense of the magnitude of the challenge.

Sterling fell sharply against the dollar and euro yesterday, hurt by a new bout of political uncertainty that soured the outlook for a currency already reeling from weeks of turmoil over whether Britain will stay in the EU.

UK prosecutors have obtained arrest warrants against five bankers who failed to appear to face charges for rigging a key interest-rate benchmark.

Sterling headed for its biggest weekly decline in more than a month against the dollar late yesterday as UK prime minister David Cameron stepped up efforts to reach a deal with fellow European leaders over the terms of UK membership of the bloc.

European shares slipped again on renewed scares over the price of oil, but posted their first significant gains this week, even as big concerns persist over the continent’s banks.

The relief rally that swept through Europe’s stock markets this week came to an abrupt halt, as shares slid for the eighth time in nine days and hit their lowest levels since September 2013.

Debt issuer the National Treasury Management Agency sold €1bn of 10-year debt to investors yesterday at a yield or interest rate just below 1%, reflecting in part the worldwide flight to safety into government securities, as stock markets tumbled again.

New indicators suggest the prospect of Britain opting to leave the EU is becoming more of a reality.

The euro headed for its biggest monthly decline against the dollar since March, and may fall sharply again in the coming months against sterling too, as economists unanimously forecast that the ECB will unveil additional monetary stimulus this week.