Good morning! Here’s what you need to know in markets on Monday.
1. Brexit Secretary David Davis starts negotiations in Brussels on Monday that will set the terms on which Britain leaves the European Union and determine its relationship with the continent for generations to come. Almost a year to the day since Britons shocked themselves and their neighbours by voting to cut loose from their main trading partner, and nearly three months since Prime Minister Theresa May locked them into a two-year countdown to Brexit in March 2019, almost nothing about the future is clear.
2. French President Emmanuel Macron’s party has won a clear parliamentary majority, results show, weeks after his own presidential victory. The BBC reports that with nearly all votes counted, his La République en Marche, alongside its MoDem allies, won more than 300 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
3. J Sainsbury has entered into exclusive discussions to acquire the convenience store operator Nisa for £130 million as the country’s largest supermarket chains continue to target the convenience sector. The Financial Times reports that Nisa appointed Lazard, the investment bank, after receiving interest from potential buyers following Tesco’s £3.7 billion takeover of Booker, the convenience store and wholesale retailer that runs the Londis and Budgens chains.
4. Co-op Bank could announce a deal this week that would lead to the struggling lender’s hedge fund owners and the Co-op Group agreeing a £700 million bailout package, averting a wind down that would leave millions of customers and thousands of pensioners facing uncertainty. The Times reports that representatives of bondholders and the country’s largest mutual were in talks over the weekend about how to resolve the cost of pension entitlements for current and former Co-op Bank staff and appeared to be close to a deal.