Thanks for joining me. Britain’s economy shrank by more than expected in October, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Gross domestic product contracted by 0.3pc during the month as Britain’s households and businesses dealt with interest rates at 15-year highs.
5 things to start your day
1) Boots owner explores London listing of high street chain | Plans to go public could provide much-needed boost for ailing stock market
2) UK’s biggest train operator faces £1bn hit under Labour renationalisation | Analysts at Peel Hunt downgrade FirstGroup’s expected rail revenues in 2026
3) Scrap triple lock and link state pension to earnings, says IFS | Think tank warns current policy stands to cost additional £24bn a year by 2050
4) Jeremy Warner: The pro-lockdown fanatics can’t be allowed to rewrite Covid history | Buck-passing and name-calling make for good theatre but have no practical value whatsoever
5) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: My heat pump experience in France | Our dilapidated stone farmhouse is a good test case of claims and counter-claims of the net zero technology
What happened overnight
Asian shares were mixed after Wall Street rose to its highest level since early 2022, slightly below its record high, following a report showing inflation in the United States is behaving pretty much as expected.
Benchmarks declined in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul but rose in Tokyo and Sydney. Oil prices slipped.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.3pc or 82.65 points, to close at 32,926.35, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.1pc, or 1.76 points, to 2,354.92. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.4pc at 7,263.30.
Shares in China declined on what analysts said was disappointment over a lack of major stimulus measures from a major economic planning conference that ended on Tuesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.7pc to 16,252.67 and the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5pc at 2,989.15. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.6pc to 2,521.81.
Taiwan’s Taiex edged 0.1pc higher and Bangkok’s SET lost 0.5pc.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading American companies closed up 0.4pc at 36,577.94, while the broader S&P 500 was up 0.5pc at 4,643.70. The Nasdaq Composite index, heavily weighted towards technology stocks, was up 0.7pc at 14,533.40.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds declined three basis points to 4.2pc.
