So just when, exactly, will the City press the no-deal panic button? | Nils Pratley

Given the ever-ticking Brexit clock, the air of complacency in the markets is extraordinary

At what point do financial markets start to panic about the risk of a no-deal Brexit? In theory, you'd think it would be about now. We have, after all, just witnessed the strange spectacle of the prime minister abandoning her own Brexit deal to go back to Brussels to try to secure changes to the Irish backstop, something the European Union has said, time and again, it will not contemplate. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and the default position remains that the UK leaves the EU on 29 March.

The pound, it's true, had a minor wobble on Tuesday evening when MPs voted against Yvette Cooper's amendment (the one to prevent a no-deal by extending the article 50 negotiating period) but you'd barely notice it on a chart extending over several days. Sterling stands at almost $1.31 against the US dollar, a couple of cents higher than it was on 1 January.