Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney out on the wires
That's adding fuel to the sterling rally that we're seeing. Sterling has moved higher on the back of hopes that a provisional agreement (of the transitional agreement to be signed later in the week) will be reached when the EU press conference is due later at 1145 GMT.
Cable now to 1.4033. EUR/GBP down to lows of 0.8762, while GBP/JPY is up to 148.85.
Update: WSJ is reporting that the EU has agreed on broad Brexit transition terms - but Ireland issue remains.
The report says that UK would continue implementing all EU rules under the jurisdiction of the bloc's top court until the end of 2020 - while having no say in future EU decisions.
Apparently, the provisional agreement here came "hours before" Davis and Barnier were set to meet - which was at 1000 GMT.
