| Welcome to your morning markets update, delivered every weekday before the European open. Good morning. The pound slid on the U.K. prime minister's latest Brexit update, U.S. shares hit a record high, Boeing Co.'s 737 Max crisis is deepening and strikes in France aren't going away. Here's what's moving markets. Pound Slides The pound slumped after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to change the law to guarantee the Brexit transition phase isn't extended beyond the end of next year, reviving the threat that the country could leave the European Union without an agreement. Earlier on Monday, sterling erased a gain after data showed U.K. manufacturing in December suffered its worst month in more than seven years. Meanwhile, the U.S. says it wants to start work on a U.K. trade deal soon, while speculation in Britain mounts over who could be the next leader of the bruised opposition Labour Party. Stocks Climb Asian shares climbed overnight, adding to gains in the U.S. where the S&P 500 index followed Europe's lead by hitting a fresh record in the wake of the China trade deal. Bank of America says markets are primed for a "melt-up" next quarter, and there's some optimism for Europe: The Goldman Sachs asset manager who foresaw this year's rally in equities says investors are too pessimistic on Europe's growth prospects. But it's worth noting that data from Germany, and to an extent, France are not painting the best picture of the European economy. Boeing Halt The aviation sector got a bit of a jolt as Boeing Co. announced plans to halt production of its grounded 737 Max in January, a move that is likely to deepen the crisis engulfing the planemaker, complicate its eventual recovery and ripple through the sector. The indefinite shutdown will help the company conserve cash as pressure builds, with almost 400 new aircraft languishing in storage due to a global flying ban imposed nine months ago. Boeing shares fell the most in two months in New York. French Stalemate The stalemate between France's government and its labor unions is showing few signs of abating as the country heads into a third week of transport strikes over President Emmanuel Macron's efforts to reform its pension system, threatening more chaos during the busy Christmas period. Negotiations have been suspended, and complicating matters, Macron's point man for pension reform resigned Monday after it was exposed that he failed to report multiple side jobs. Coming Up… We'll get a U.S. industrial production reading after the weak numbers Monday in Europe, while for currency traders, the Hungarian central bank is seen making no change to its main interest rate. Elsewhere, the earnings schedule is light although German electronics retailer Ceconomy AG reports. What We've Been Reading This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning Papa Noel has come a few days early to European equity investors with the Stoxx 600 Index closing at a record high Monday, finally surpassing its previous 2015 peak. While a regular occurrence for U.S. benchmarks this year, Europe's move into new territory came courtesy of a resolution of sorts for the region's two major headwinds, trade and Brexit. Europe's stock gauge is now on track for a 24% gain this year, its biggest in a decade. Despite the records however, the mood in financial markets could hardly be called euphoric. Bond yields have reacted with reasonable restraint to the trade breakthrough and moves in other risk assets have been modest. There seems to be an underlying understanding that the phase-one trade deal is no gamechanger and the path forward will be rockier. And plans by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to change the law to block any further Brexit delay have taken some of the shine off the post-election optimism in the U.K.. There's every chance the same two headwinds will blow again at some stage in 2020. But it would be a case of bah humbug not to note they didn't do much harm to European stocks this year.  Cormac Mullen is a Cross-Asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more. | 
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