Thanks for joining us. We begin the day with data on the pay gap between the middle class and low earners, which has shrunk to its lowest level on record.
The rising minimum wage means the pay-per-hour of workers on the lowest rates and those in the middle has narrowed the most since at least the mid-1970s, according to the Resolution Foundation.
5 things to start your day
1) Tech boss ‘felt like he was bribed’ to move company from UK to China | Ex-chief sues chip maker for £200m, claiming he was sacked for whistleblowing
2) Hargreaves Lansdown takeover bid not fair to all investors, chairman warned | Concerns raised over value of offer and its impact on the London Stock Exchange
3) ‘James Bond’ tourist attraction to snub London market | Tourism developer seeking to create attraction under Tube station hopes to float on Euronext exchange with a value of £130m
4) Lowest earners close gap on middle class after minimum wage leaps | Pay-per-hour difference falls to lowest level since 1970s, reveals Resolution Foundation
5) ‘Ozempic face’ supplements to combat side effects of rapid weight loss | Nestlé to roll out hair growth and collagen products
What happened overnight
Asian stocks rose after another slide for Wall Street heavyweight Nvidia kept US indexes mixed.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.5pc to 39,001.39 after data from the Bank of Japan Tuesday showed the services producer price index in May was up 2.5pc compared to the same period last year, a slowdown from the 2.7pc increase seen in April.
The Japanese yen remains a focus of attention, with the US dollar to Japanese yen exchange rate still trading near its weakest level in approximately 34 years. The yen rose to 159.37 to the dollar in Tuesday morning trading. The dollar closed at 159.59 yen on Monday.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was 0.5pc higher to 18,121.78 and the Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.3pc to 2,954.51.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9pc to 7,799.20. In South Korea, the Kospi climbed 0.5pc to 2,777.69.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.3pc, while the SET in Bangkok edged 0.1pc higher.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading US companies hit a one-month high while the Nasdaq fell more than 1pc.
The Dow Jones rose 0.7pc, to 39,411.21, the S&P 500 lost 0.3pc, to 5,447.87, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1pc, to 17,496.82.
The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds feel to 4.23pc, from 4.257pc late on Friday.
