EU's Barnier is neither pessimistic nor optimistic on prospects of a deal – Reuters

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, was neither pessimistic nor optimistic on prospects of a deal with the UK while updating EU member states, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an EU diplomat.

"Barnier implied that they were getting closer to a deal but not at a huge rate of knots," the diplomat further noted. 

According to Reuters, member states still believe there is "still important stuff to play for" and they have not discussed the idea of a short no-deal period if the December 31 deadline is missed.

Market reaction

The British pound struggles to find demand following this report. As of writing, the GBP/USD pair was down 0.52% on the day at 1.3345.