Thanks for joining us. We start the week with a look at the Employment Rights Bill, which will be scrutinised in Parliament for the first time today.
The leader of the TUC has urged MPs to back the reforms and make sure they leave themselves “on the right side of history”.
5 things to start your day
1) Reeves risks creating one of the most ‘anti-growth’ tax systems in developed world Launching a capital gains tax raid in Budget would condemn Britain’s competitiveness
2) American baby boomers race to ‘unretire’ ahead of US election Surge comes as Kamala Harris struggles to convince voters she can handle the economy
3) Founder of £5bn crypto business facing prosecution Blockchain.com executives issued with a summons for failing to file accounts on time
4) Sky losses top £750m as cost of football climbs More customers move away from British broadcaster’s satellite business to online streaming
5) Jeremy Warner: Reeves threatens a kamikaze war on savers It seems the Chancellor’s inner class warrior is screaming for action
What happened overnight
Asian shares were mostly higher after US stocks rose to records to close out their latest winning week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier, falling 0.6pc to 20,869.39, but the Shanghai Composite gained 0.8pc to 3,288.32. The A-share index of the smaller market in Shenzhen picked up 2.2pc.
The gains in mainland Chinese markets followed cuts in the one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rates, which are reference rates for lending. Lower rates can help reduce pressure on borrowers, particularly property developers that have suffered following a crackdown on excessive borrowing several years ago.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3pc at 39.078.33, while the Kospi in Seoul surged 0.8pc to 2,614.75. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.7pc to 8,340.40.
Oil prices edged higher after tumbling last week as worries receded that Israel will attack Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation for Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere. Concerns about the strength of demand from China have also hit oil prices.
Early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 31 cents to $73.37 per barrel.
On Friday, Wall Street logged more records as the S&P 500 rose 0.4pc to squeak past the all-time high it had set early this week, closing at 5,864.67.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1pc higher to 43,275.91, another record. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.6pc to 18,489.55.
Trading overall on Wall Street remained relatively calm, as the S&P 500 closed its sixth straight winning week. That’s its longest such winning streak of 2024.
