Thanks for joining us. The energy sector is our initial focus today as new research indicates that wind will overtake gas as Britain’s main source of electricity for the first time this year.
Offshore Energies UK said wind had outperformed gas in the first four months of this year and the introduction of new wind farms in recent months is expected to continue the trend.
5 things to start your day
1) London dragging down UK productivity as office staff work from home | Capital suffers biggest decline in hourly output amid continued resistance to travelling to the office
2) UBS sets aside €900m to repay Greensill investors | Swiss banking giant says profits will not be affected by the provision to rescue Credit Suisse
3) Britain’s richest family spent more on pet dog than on servants, Swiss court hears | Hinduja family members face jail over trafficking and staff exploitation allegations
4) Anti-Israel student protests putting ‘handbrake’ on corporate diversity spending, says MindGym | Tighter HR budgets lead to ‘change in priorities’ for companies amid culture war
5) Ben Marlow: Shein’s fast fashion looks crazily out of step with Starmer’s Britain | Labour’s focus on workers’ rights jars with the fast fashion giant’s standards
What happened overnight
Asian stocks tracked Wall Street higher, while the Australian dollar held steady after its central bank offered few surprises in its policy decision.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept rates at a 12-year high of 4.35pc, as expected, but warned there were still reasons to be vigilant against inflation risks.
Traders pared back on bets of a rate cut this year in the wake of the RBA decision, though the Aussie dollar was little changed as the statement contained few surprises. It last bought $0.6612.
Ebbing worries over political turmoil in Europe added to the buoyant market mood on Tuesday and sent the Euro Stoxx 50 higher by 0.4pc in premarket trading, reversing some of its steep losses from last week. FTSE futures similarly rose 0.3pc.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6pc, helped by an overnight rally on Wall Street.
The Nikkei in Japan was up 0.8pc and S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.9pc. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down 0.1pc.
On Wall Street, American stocks slowly gained steam after a sluggish start to the session to send the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 to record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5pc, to 38,778.10, the S&P 500 gained 0.8pc, to 5,473.23, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1pc, to 17,857.02.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds climbed to 4.29pc from 4.22pc late on Friday.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
