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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will speak on the phone shortly, with a deal due to be announced later on, according to various reports. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said there was a “last-minute hitch” relating to language over fishing rights but expected an announcement later on Thursday. “I had hoped to be talking to you this morning in parallel with big announcements happening in both London and Brussels, but we still expect those later on today,” he told Ireland’s RTE radio. The deal would still need to be ratified ahead of the year-end deadline.

European stocks also built on Wednesday’s gains as the prospect of an agreement brought a sense of relief to markets ahead of Christmas.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 SXXP, +0.18% was 0.2% up, while the French CAC PX1, -0.03% rose 0.3% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 UKX, +0.01% edged 0.2% higher at the start of a shortened trading day. The German DAX DAX, +1.26% was closed for the holidays. U.S. stock futures YM00, +0.18% ES00, +0.21% NQ00, +0.12% also pointed higher ahead of an abbreviated session set to end at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. U.S. stocks indexes closed broadly higher on Wednesday but lost some gains in the final hour of trading after President Donald Trump vetoed the annual defense policy bill.

Asian stocks were broadly higher but fell in Shanghai after China’s market regulator launched an anti-monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group BABA, +0.14%

Read: Here’s what a Brexit trade deal could mean for markets and investors

Despite the pre-Christmas positivity, the threat of COVID-19 still loomed large across Europe with cases rising. The U.K. announced that more regions would enter the toughest tier 4 level of restrictions on Saturday as the country battles to contain a new strain of the virus, said to be 70% more contagious. The country’s health minister Matt Hancock also revealed that a second new strain had been detected, from South Africa. “This new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant discovered in the U.K.,” he said on Wednesday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev ABI, -0.29% stock fell 1.1% as a consortium led by Apollo Global agreed to buy a 49.9% stake in the Budweiser brewer’s U.S.-based metal container plants in a deal worth $3 billion.