Image source, Reuters

The pound earlier came within half a cent of hitting a 31-year low against the dollar. It also touched a three-year low against the euro as markets digested Theresa May setting a deadline for the start of Brexit talks.

The pound has since made back some ground, but is still lower than where it started the day.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trader IG, put the slight recovery down to a survey which showed the UK's manufacturing sector grew strongly in September.

"Another rise in the UK’s manufacturing PMI helped sterling to recover some of its losses, and while the move this morning has garnered plenty of attention it is a pale imitation of the action seen in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Manufacturing activity is not only up in the UK, but in the Eurozone too - although that owes much to a strong performance from Germany.

Markit's Manufacturing PurchasingManagers' Index for the bloc, external rose to 52.6 in September from 51.7 in August. 

This was driven by demand from both within and outside the Eurozone, it said. Anything above 50 indicates growth.

However, while Germany surged ahead, performance was far weaker than earlier in the year in Italy, Spain and Ireland, while manufacturing in France continued to decline.

With a deadline now set for the start of Brexit negotiations with the EU, George Osborne's former chief of staff says it's clear they're going to be "lengthy". 

Rupert Harrison, who Osborne used to joke was the "real chancellor" during his time at the Treasury, is now at the world's biggest investment fund, Blackrock. 

He says there will be "prolonged uncertainty and probably a transitional agreement" before the UK withdraws from the EU. 

It's also clear that the UK's continued access to the EU's single market will be dealt with "sector by sector", he adds.

Philip Hammond may turn the page on many of George Osborne's key policies in his conference speech later, but he still appears to have his predecessor's support.

Image source, Getty Images

Following on neatly from that chart is this BBC story on the FTSE 100's main winners and losers 100 days on from the referendum.

British fashion designer Burberry - being modelled here by Suki Waterhouse and Cara Delevingne - is among the winners, while airline Easyjet is one of the worst hit.

Generally the companies whose shares have fared best since referendum day are those which make most of their money in dollars and are less exposed to the UK economy.

Read the full story here.

FXTM's chief market strategist, Hussein Sayed, has told Business Insider that Brexit-linked currency volatility is here to stay, after the pound dived on news the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50 next March.  

“The pound’s imminent reaction was a drop of 0.5% against the dollar in early Asian trading session, nothing compared to the 11% freefall after UK’s vote to leave the EU on June 23. 

"Now with the timeline being set, the negotiation of the terms will be a key driver for sterling going forward, but I expect it to be rough ride in the next few months.”

In the past, cars were built almost by a process of trial and error. You built a prototype, then tested it to find out what worked and what didn't. 

Nowadays, much of this work is done by computers. 

Theo Leggett has been talking to Stephen Remondi, chief executive of Exa Corporation, to see how 3D simulations are being used by designers to refine their work in the virtual world before a single car panel has been built in the real one.

The pound this morning hit a three-year low against the euro and is still trading at below €1.15. BBC personal finance correspondent Simon Gompertz tweets...

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Google will this week launch the first phones with its own brand and design, the Financial Times reports. 

The smartphones, which could be unveiled tomorrow, will be part of a batch of new devices aimed at competing in markets with Apple and Amazon.

They will include a voice-responsive “smart speaker” modelled on Amazon’s Echo and are the first products of a new hardware division set up earlier this year, the FT says.

Google had a shortlived attempt to make phones when it owned Motorola. It also uses Nexus phones that are co-branded with device makers and intended to act as flagships for its Android software.

Image source, Getty

British manufacturing activity grew at its fastest rate since June 2014, according to the latest Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index, external (PMI) survey, rising to 55.4 in September from 53.4 in August.

The sector was boosted by a surge in export orders after sterling slumped following June's vote for Brexit - offering further reassurance that the UK economy is weathering the referendum result well.

Rob Dobson, an economist at Markit, which compiles the survey, said: “The rebound over the past two months has been encouragingly strong, and puts the sector on course to provide a further positive contribution to GDP in the third quarter."

Image source, Getty Images

Talk Talk, the broadband provider hit by a huge cyber attack last year, is looking to shore up its falling customer base with a range of consumer-friendly offers. 

These include giving existing customers the same low-cost deals previously only available to new customers, and letting them fix their price plans to shield them from "bill shock". 

It also said it would scrap separate line rental charges - a practice the Advertising Standards Authority has claimed can obscure customers' actual costs per month.

It comes after Vodafone promised to abolish separate rental charges in August. 

The figure we're looking out for today is $1.2797 - that's the lowest the pound dropped to after the Brexit vote. Sterling is currently trading at about $1.2880.

If it falls further and does go below that level, it'll be the first time since 1985. The lowest it got that year? $1.05, so we're not quite in that territory.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Meanwhile, the chancellor has been speaking to the BBC about how he plans to offset any Brexit blowback. 

Speaking ahead of his first major party speech, Philip Hammond said he had pushed back George Osborne's deficit reduction targets and will also borrow to invest in infrastructure projects. 

So does that mean an end to Conservative austerity? 

“There is a distinction in my mind in investing in the things that will make Britain’s economy more efficient in the future - make transport systems work better, communications systems work better - and simply spending more on our day to day processes of government," he told the Today Programme.

Such "targeted investment" would support the economy in the short term, he added, while making Britain more productive in the future. 

Image source, ETX Capital

The FTSE 100 index is off to a strong start, rising 54 points to 6,953 in the opening hour. 

Analysts said London's blue chip index is being boosted by the fall in the pound, as many of the firms in the FTSE 100 make money in other currencies.

Shares in mining firm Anglo American, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and global asset manager Schroders are all more than 2% higher.

The FTSE 250, which is seen as a better barometer of UK business than the more global 100, is 132 points higher at 18,007 points.

Image source, Getty Images

Connor Campbell, an analyst at Spreadex, says the pledges from Theresa May over the weekend have brought "Britain’s impending divorce from the EU to the forefront of investors’ minds".

"This has, unsurprisingly, been bad news for the pound," he says.  

It's partly the Prime Minister's promise to trigger Brexit negotiations by the end of March 2017, he says. 

Also, some investors believe Mrs May is "putting her weight behind a 'hard Brexit'", which would see the UK leaving the EU's single market.

The pound keeps falling this morning after Prime Minister Theresa May's speech, in which she confirmed she would trigger Brexit negotiations by the end of March 2017.

Sterling has dropped below $1.29 and €1.15 and is back around the lowest levels it's hit since the Brexit vote. 

It has fallen to about $1.2870 - the first time since mid-August it's been that low. Against the euro it's at €1.1480. 

The pound has fallen more than 12% against the dollar since the referendum to levels last seen in 1985.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

The Chancellor has told the Today Programme that businesses are feeling "uncertain about what the future arrangements with the EU will be".

And the way business reacts to uncertainty is to sit on its hands, he said.

"We have to wait for the hard data, but anecdotally we hear of businesses postponing investment decisions - and if we don’t do anything to counteract that effect in time that would have an impact on jobs."