Sterling rose on Monday, as global risk appetite was lifted by news of progress in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trials, as well as Democrat Joe Biden’s U.S. election win, but ongoing Brexit negotiations still weighed on the pound. Global equities rose and the dollar fell to a 10-week low overnight as investors turned optimistic that a Biden presidency would result in a bigger fiscal stimulus package for the United States and calmer global trade. Market sentiment got a further boost on Monday when Pfizer Inc said that its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective. Along with other risk assets, the pound was lifted by the news, gaining around 0.5% versus the dollar in the 10 minutes after the announcement. Ned Rumpeltin, European head of currency strategy at TD Securities, said that the pound was trading along with the broader market. “Clearly, the big news is of course pricing in the Biden presidency, which I think is more about pricing out risk premia than pricing Biden in,” he said, adding that a lot of the market-positive news had already been priced in. “The Pfizer news is a good thing for the world in general. If the vaccine is as safe and effective as these headlines might suggest, that might be another gamechanger,” he added. At 1236 GMT the pound was at $1.3176, up 0.2% on the day. Versus the euro, it was also up around 0.2%, at 90.21 pence. Investors remained focused on Brexit negotiations, a new round of which started in London on Monday. The United Kingdom left the European Union in January, but the two sides are trying to clinch a trade deal before the status-quo transition period ends on Dec. 31. “It´s keeping people mostly sidelined concerning the pound in the sense that there are easier things to do elsewhere,” said TD Securities’ Rumpeltin. “There´s a clearer trade in say, the Aussie or Norway, dollar-CAD, for example… as opposed to getting involved in sterling where you have still an unquantifiable degree of uncertainty,” he said.