Thanks for joining us. Inflation fell last month, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The consumer prices index stood at 7.9pc in June, down from 8.7pc in May.
5 things to start your day
1) Jaguar Land Rover chooses UK over Spain for battery gigafactory | Britain wins race for flagship battery plant in boost for Rishi Sunak
2) Ocado admits disappointment in M&S venture as tensions rise | Online grocer says that joint venture is ‘not where we wanted it to be’
3) Britain braces for potentially ‘deeply alarming’ inflation figures | Households are bracing for inflation figures which economists predict will fall to their lowest level since March last year.
4) Hong Kong billionaire bids for ownership of Britain’s offshore wind cable network | Consortium backed by one of Asia’s richest men enters race for crucial energy network
5) Bank of England staff receive £25m in bonuses despite Bailey ‘pay restraint’ warnings | Payouts revealed as Bank prepares to announce latest inflation figures
What happened overnight
Asia’s stock markets were mixed with growth concerns dragging on China’s equities.
However, shares rose in Japan and Australia after healthy US company earnings and retail data bolstered hopes the world’s biggest economy could avoid a recession.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was dragged 0.6pc lower by a 1.2pc drop for the Hang Seng. It has fallen daily since China’s growth data on Monday underscored the country’s faltering pandemic recovery.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.9pc and touched a two-week peak.
Wall Street stocks advanced on Tuesday as upbeat earnings on Wall Street and retail sales bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.1pc at 34,951.93 and is on track for its longest streak of daily gains in more than two years.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.7pc to 4,554.98, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8pc to 14,353.64.
The yield on the benchmark10-year US Treasury slipped 0.2 basis points at 3.8pc.
