Wall Street and FTSE higher amid strong US jobs market and UK borrowing hitting £17.4bn

Well that’s all we have time for today, thanks for following along as always”

We will be back for more markets news tomorrow, bringing you all the latest across the global economy.

We have UK retail sales tomorrow and the latest updates on UK consumer confidence from GfK, so be sure not to miss it.

Until then…

…have a good evening!

European gas prices have soared to their highest level in a year today on the back of continuing tensions this week between Russia and the West.

Gas rose more than 4% during the session even though flows of Russian gas to the continent are said to be moving at normal levels.

Torgrim Reitan, finance chief of Equinor, the Norwegian state-controlled energy giant, told Bloomberg:

The Bank of England needs to keep interest rates higher for longer, one of its policymakers has said.

Catherine Mann, who was the only member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to vote against reducing borrowing costs earlier this month, said she was against a “gradual” approach to cutting rates in the UK.

She said the Bank needs to “hold for longer” so that policymakers can “evaluate the state of underlying persistence” of inflation and “purge the structural elements to the extent that you can”.

She said:

She added that the benefit of her plan was that a larger cut to interest rates would help “provide a clearer signal that there’s been a change in the underlying inflation dynamics”, which would influence business behaviour.

Mike Ashley has called for Boohoo shareholders to oust its founder following a set of “catastrophic” financial results.

The Telegraph has the details…

Mr Ashley’s Frasers Group has demanded investors vote to remove Mahmud Kamani as a director, saying its “dismal” financial results and lack of transparency meant the Boohoo founder “must go”.

In an open letter published on Thursday, Frasers said Boohoo’s latest results and refinancing were a “catastrophe” for the company and “far worse than shareholders could have ever imagined”.

It comes after Boohoo last week said revenues were down by 15pc in the six months to August, with bosses seeking to shore up the company’s position with a £222m debt refinancing deal.

The Telegraph revealed last weekend that Boohoo was facing renewed criticism over its governance after it revived ties with a struck-off supplier. In its letter, Frasers pointed to the report, saying all shareholders “should be very concerned about the continuing governance failures that are yet again occurring at Boohoo”.

Frasers said investors had a “simple choice” at an upcoming vote over the future of Boohoo: “Win with Mr Ashley or lose with Mr Kamani.”

Frasers has also called a vote on adding Mr Ashley to the Boohoo board. A meeting has been set for next month.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefit has fallen, with 213,000 new ‘initial claims’ for jobless support last week.

This was a drop of 6,000 compared the previous week’s 219,000, the Labour Department reported

The initial claims total is seen as a proxy for the number of new layoffs in the US economy.

However, the total number of jobless claimants rose to its highest in three years.

The estimated total for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment in the week to November 9 was 1,908,000, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the highest level for insured unemployment since November 13, 2021 when it was 1,974,000.

Car sales in the UK and across Europe flatlined last month, with new car registrations just 0.1% higher in October compared to last year.

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Europe’s second largest economy, France, drove the declines, falling 11.1%, while Italy’s sales dropped by 9.1%. Total sales in Britain were down 6%, it said.

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) rose 6.9% last month but were down 4.9% in Germany, Europe’s largest market. EV sales were also down 18% in France and 12.8% in Italy.

On Wednesday, Nissan warned the Transport Secretary that electric vehicle (EV) targets risk “irreversible” damage to the car industry.

Nissan’s Guillaume Cartier said:

Paypal was down for thousands of users this afternoon, leaving many unable to pay bills.

More than 6,000 reports of an outage were made on the tracking website Downdetector, with people around the world taking to social media to complain about the system not working.

PayPal said it was been hit with a “system issue that may be affecting multiple products” before later reporting that all its systems were “operational” again.

Oil prices edged higher on Thursday as escalating geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine triggered supply concerns.

Brent crude futures for January rose 0.4% while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures also were 0.4% up.

it comes as Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets a day after it fired US ATACMS missiles.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia, the group known as OPEC+, may push back output increases again when it meets on 1 December due to weak global oil demand, according to three sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said.

OPEC+ had initially planned to gradually reverse production cuts with minor increases spread over several months in 2024 and 2025. However, a slowdown in Chinese and global demand, coupled with rising output outside the group, have potentially thwarted this plan.

Well we are already into the afternoon so here’s a quick look at what’s been happening in equity markets so far this morning…

• Halma was the standout gainer on the FTSE 100 as the safety equipment and hazard detection products group raised its interim dividend by 7% after a record first-half performance which saw sales top the £1bn mark. It also retained its guidance for the full year.

• Ithaca Energy rose as it announced a $200m special dividend.

• On the downside, JD Sports tumbled as the retailer warned full-year profits would be at the lower end of forecasts after a “volatile” trading environment in October due to bigger discounts, milder weather and consumer caution ahead of the US election.

• CMC Markets was under the cosh despite saying it swung to an interim pre-tax profit of £49.6m from a loss of £2m a year earlier.

• Paypoint lost ground even after it reported a 20.6% improvement in first-half underlying EBITDA to £37.5m on the back of continued operational momentum across its divisions.

• Vodafone, National Grid, DCC, B&M European Value Retail, Petershill Partners and Great Portland all fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

• Auction Technology was also in the red after an initiation at ‘underperform’ by Jefferies.

Money markets indicate there is a 10% chance that the Bank of England will cut interest rates in December.

Policymakers are expected to lower rates by around 68 basis points, equivalent to just under three quarters of a percentage point, over the next year.

Traders think there is an 80% chance the next cut will happen in February.

Commerzbank strategist Michael Pfister said:

The pound (GBPUSD=X) held steady against the dollar in early European trading, hovering at $1.2641.

Sterling found some support from growing expectations that the Bank of England (BoE) will refrain from cutting interest rates in December, following a surprise uptick in UK inflation.

UK headline inflation exceeded the BoE’s 2% target, with core consumer prices – excluding volatile items – unexpectedly accelerating. Service-sector inflation, closely monitored by BoE officials, also surged, climbing at a faster pace of 5%. These developments have raised expectations that the central bank will maintain its cautious stance on interest rates, rather than loosening policy.

Meanwhile, the US dollar traded in a narrow range as traders scaled back expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in December. Markets are pricing in the belief that president-elect Donald Trump’s fiscal policies—focused on trade and tax reform—will be inflationary and growth-oriented, prompting the Fed to adopt a more gradual approach to policy easing.

Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman said: “It’s concerning to me that we’re recalibrating policy, but we haven’t yet achieved our inflation goal.”

Looking ahead, UK investors will focus on key data points due out on Friday, including October’s retail sales figures and the preliminary S&P Global/CIPS purchasing managers index (PMI) for November, which could provide further clues on the health of the economy.

Meanwhile, against the euro (GBPEUR=X), sterling was marginally higher, trading at €1.1997.

Ford has announced it will cut 800 jobs in the UK over the next three years.

The move is part of a major restructuring programme, which will see 4,000 positions closed across Europe as a whole.

It blamed difficult trading conditions, including intense competition and weak demand for electric vehicles.

Ford has a total of 5,300 employees in the UK.

Matas Buzelis, car expert at vehicle history checking service carVertical, said:

JD Sports shares plunged as much as 16% to the bottom of the FTSE 100, to their lowest level in over two years, after sales were weaker than expected in the third quarter.

It has since pared back some of the losses, now down around 14.5% at the time of writing.

The retailer warned that it had faced “softer consumer demand” as a result of poor weather and “suppressed demand in the US ahead of the election”.

JD now expects pre-tax profits to only reach the lower end of its original guidance range of £955, to £1.035bn.

Régis Schultz, chief executive of JD Sports Fashion, said:

Inheritance tax has brought in £5bn so far this financial year, it has been revealed.

New figures from HMRC this morning show that inheritance tax receipts for April to October 2024 have risen by £500m year-on-year, to £5bn.

This increase is driven by “higher volumes of wealth transfers following recent IHT-liable deaths”, says HMRC, with the increase in values of assets such as homes and share portfolios meaning more estates are worth more than the IHT thresholds.

Fiscal drag is also pushing more estates into the IHT territory, as those thresholds have been frozen for several years.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said:

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is approaching the historic $100,000 level, fuelled by optimism around President-elect Donald Trump’s support for crypto.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has jumped to around $97,902 in early trading, meaning it has surged by 132% so far this year.

It has rallied from below $70,000 since Trump won the US presidential election two weeks ago, with traders calculating that the next administration will be more friendly towards crypto.

The crypto market as a whole has gained approximately $900bn since Trump’s election win.

“Buyers are strangling the sellers,” said IG Australia Pty Market analyst Tony Sycamore. “While I’m not sure it’s all going to be smooth sailing as it edges closer to the $100,000 mark, the demand appears to be insatiable.”

The increase in borrowing lifts the UK’s public sector net debt to 97.5% of GDP, levels last seen in the early 1960s.

This is 1.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The interest the Treasury has to pay on government debt rose to £9.1bn last month, which was £500m higher than in October 2023, according to the ONS.

Alex Kerr, UK economist at Capital Economics, said:

UK government borrowing reached £17.4bn in October, which was the second-highest level for the month since records began, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figure was £1.6bn higher than the same month last year and came in higher than the £13.3bn forecast by many economists, according to Bloomberg.

Alex Kerr, UK economist at Capital Economics, said that these latest figures “underline the little wiggle room the chancellor has to significantly increase day-to-day spending”.

Since the start of the financial year, total borrowing costs stands at £96.6bn, which is £1.1bn more than the same period in 2023.

This is first look at public finances since chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first budget in 14 years at the end of October, in which she announced policies that increased spending by nearly £70bn a year.

Reeves announced £40bn in tax rises in the autumn statement to help fund spending and prior to the budget, had confirmed changes to fiscal rules that would allow for up to £50bn borrowing a year by the end of the decade.

However, the changes to public spending were higher than those rises in taxation, meaning that cumulatively borrowing is set to be £142bn higher than previously expected over the coming years to 2030.

The Office for Budget Responsibility said that this budget represented “one of the largest fiscal loosenings of any fiscal event in recent decades”.

ONS deputy director for public sector finances, Jessica Barnaby, said:

Asian shares were mostly lower overnight with the Nikkei (^N225) slipping 0.9% on the day in Japan, as shares in semiconductor equipment maker Advantest dropped and chipmaker Tokyo Electron shed 0.5%. The Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.5% in Hong Kong.

However, the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.7% up by the end of the session.

It came as markets digested the strong and highly anticipated profit report from Nvidia (NVDA) which again topped analysts’ expectations. In after-hours trading, the AI darling shares lost 2.5%

All three of the major Wall Street indexes spent much of Wednesday in negative territory. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) remained 0.1% down at 18,966.14, when the market closed, but S&P 500 (^GSPC) was flat at 5,917.11 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) finished up 0.3% at 43,408.47.

In the bond market, the yield on much-watched 10-year US Treasury notes rose to 4.409% from 4.406% late on Tuesday.

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s moving markets and happening across the global economy.

Here’s a quick look at what’s on the agenda for today:

• 7am: Trading updates: JD Sports, Halma, Jet2, CMC Markets, JD Wetherspoon

• 7am: UK public finances for October

• 11am: CBI industrial trends report for October

• 1.30pm: US weekly jobless claims

• 1.30pm: Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index

• 3pm: Eurozone consumer confidence report

• 3pm: US Existing Home Sales