Ggood morning. The FTSE 100 is set to decline for a second day as the pollen run continues to wane on Monday. Investors are increasingly focusing on the risks of the virus in the short term rather than the long-term effects of a vaccine.

The pound continued to rally due to optimism about the Brexit deal.

5 things to start your day

1) Festive ads are an early Christmas gift to the media industry: John Lewis’ Christmas advertisement is a welcome respite for broadcasters, after facing a £ 500m drop in TV advertising spend from March to June.

2) Tech billionaires thrive on private jet sales: Wealthy technology managers but increasingly lack time on larger aircraft to travel across continents without the need for a fuel stop.

3) Shop early this Christmas, Amazon warns: The online retail giant fears hiring 250,000 additional workers this year may not be enough to avoid shipping delays this holiday season.

4) Officials spent £ 6 million on body bags from Slovakia at the height of the first wave: Ministers paid £ 6 million in April to a Slovak medical goods company as the UK’s Covid virus death rate soared and stocks fell, according to official filings.

5) Elon Musk is the third richest person in the world as Tesla entered the S&P 500: Elon Musk surpassed Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook to become the third richest person in the world, after his fortune increased by $ 7.6 billion (£ 5.7 billion).

What happened overnight

Asian stock markets were mixed on Wednesday after Wall Street tumbled as concerns about the long-term impact of the coronavirus epidemic dampened enthusiasm about developing a potential vaccine.

Standards slipped in Tokyo and Hong Kong, while Shanghai and Seoul advanced.

Also Wednesday, Japan announced that its exports contracted to 0.2% year-on-year in October.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo lost 0.7 percent to 25,827.23, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,355.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 26,383.95.

The Kospi in Seoul rose less than 0.1% at 2539.20, and the S & P-ASX 200 in Sydney rose 0.3% to 6,515.50.

Is coming today

Company: British Land, Hufford’s, SSE (Interim results); Avon Rubber (whole year) ; Tbc Bank Group, Safestore, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Equiniti, Nvidia (Trading data)

Economics: Inflation (UK, Eurozone), Car registrations, home price index (United kingdom); Building permits, housing (we)