Thanks for joining me. The Treasury borrowed more than expected in February in a blow to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Public sector borrowing, excluding banks, hit £8.4bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics, which was more than analyst predictions of £6bn.
5 things to start your day
1) Biden unveils sweeping crackdown on petrol cars in push to go electric | Half of all cars sold in America to run on electricity by 2030 under European-style rules
2) Deloitte quits as Very Group auditor in fresh blow to Barclay family | Big Four firm’s exit sparks immediate sell-off in online retailer’s bonds
3) Shoppers sue Hermes for refusing to sell them Birkin handbags | Designer accused of only selling luxury product to customers deemed ‘worthy’ enough
4) Council bans airline and fast food adverts in green crackdown | Sheffield City Council lays out new policy aimed at tackling ‘impacts of consumerism’
5) Rupert Lowe: Over-regulation has destroyed the London stock market | In rooting out ‘wrongdoers’, the FCA has repeatedly thrown the baby out with the bathwater
What happened overnight
Asian benchmarks were mostly higher after US stocks rallied to records following the Federal Reserve’s indication that it expects to deliver interest rate cuts later this year.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2pc, or 812.06 points, to close at 40,815.66, while the broader Topix index climbed 1.6pc, or 45.24 points, to 2,796.21.
It also also boosted after Japan’s government reported exports grew nearly 8pc in February from a year earlier, in the third straight month of increase.
Shipments of cars and electrical machinery increase, helping to trim the trade deficit to about half of what it was a year earlier.
Hong Kong’s benchmark jumped 1.8pc to 16,836.46 while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.2pc, to 3,073.37, after the Chinese government announced fresh measures to support the economy.
Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5pc to 7,735.40. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.5pc to 2,729.64.
US stocks rallied to records on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it still expects to cut interest rates three times this year.
The S&P 500 jumped 0.9pc, to 5,224.62, and set an all-time high for a second straight day. It’s already run up 9.5pc so far this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1pc, to 39,512.13, and the Nasdaq Composite index roared 1.3pc higher, to 16,369.41. Both also hit records.
