Sterling went on a roller-coaster yesterday falling back sharply as high hopes for a Brexit deal were dashed, while US and European shares surged following the US Senate weekend vote to approve president Donald Trump’s tax-cutting bill.

The US stock market closed out its best week in nearly two years on a positive note today, helped by strong quarterly earnings from Microsoft and other big US companies.

Wall Street was happy to see Larry Summers go.

Good news over hiring and retail sales helped send the US stock market sharply higher yesterday.