Thanks for joining me. We begin the day looking at the latest official retail sales figures, which show a slowdown in growth in September.
The drop was driven by a 2.4pc decline in sales volumes in supermarkets, which retailers blamed on poor weather and consumers cutting back.
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China said its economy grew 4.6pc year-on-year in the third quarter, the slowest pace recorded in one and a half years.
Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics put the figures down to a “complicated and severe external environment… as well as new problems of domestic economic development”.
However, retail sales and industrial output rose more than expected in September which boosted the markets.
Shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai edged up in the morning, while there were also gains in Tokyo thanks to a weaker yen.
Wellington, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta also rose, but Sydney, Singapore and Seoul edged down.
Gold rose past $2,700 to a new record.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4pc, to 43,239.05, the S&P 500 was flat at 5,841.47, and the Nasdaq Composite closed flat at 18,373.61.
In the bond market, the yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose to 4.098pc, from 4.016pc late on Wednesday.
A record number of UK businesses are facing a serious financial strain, as post-Covid debts squeeze all corners of the economy, a report has found.The warning c
City regulators including the PRA have come under fire in recent years for burdening companies with too much red tape, leading
Almost half of business owners said that they would consider moving their companies abroad if taxes were increased in the upcoming autumn budget, research shows
When criminals dupe their victims into sending them money by pretending to be a legitimate company, such as their bank or a tradesperson, or by selling goods th