Thanks for joining me. House prices are just £1,000 off their record high, industry figures show, as optimism about interest rates pushed up property values at the fastest pace in nearly two years.
Average house prices were up 4.3pc in the year to August to £292,505, according to the Halifax house price index.
5 things to start your day
1) Topshop poised to return to high street | Danish rival of the tycoon Mike Ashley wins control of retail ‘crown jewel’
2) Trump: I’ll hire Elon Musk to make ‘drastic’ changes as US efficiency tsar | Tesla billionaire agrees to ‘serve America’ should the Republican candidate win
3) How Spain has shown why a wealth tax will fail in Britain | Poor yields, high enforcement costs and risk of capital flight undermine the case for targeting the rich
4) Developer plans tens of thousands of greenbelt homes as part of Starmer’s building boom | Government must offer billions of pounds in funding to reach targets, warns Vistry boss
5) Ben Marlow: Debt-laden Royal Mail is killing letter deliveries by a thousand cuts | Britain’s leaders are auctioning off national assets with little thought of the consequences
What happened overnight
Asian shares were mixed ahead of a highly anticipated US jobs report that is expected to influence how the Federal Reserve will move on interest rates.
The nonfarm payrolls report, due for release later today, will indicate how big of a cut to interest rates the Fed will deliver at its next meeting later this month.
After keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high to stifle inflation, the Fed has hinted it is about to begin cutting rates to keep the economy from sliding into a recession.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was little changed in morning trading, gaining less than 0.1pc to 36,657.79.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6pc to 7,998.00, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 1.8pc to 2,529.31.
The Shanghai Composite gained 0.3pc to 2,797.15. Trading was halted in Hong Kong because of an approaching typhoon.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5pc, closing at 40,755.75, the S&P 500 lost 0.3pc, to 5,503.41, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3pc, to 17,127.66.
In the bond market, the yield on benchmark US 10-year Treasury notes fell 3.729pc, from 3.768pc late on Wednesday.
