Thanks for joining me. We begin the day with the economic news that has been keenly anticipated by mortgage holders and the Prime Minister.
Inflation fell to 2.3pc in April, according to the Office for National Statistics, raising hopes that interest rate cuts will not be far away.
5 things to start your day
1) Britain’s third new nuclear power station to be built in Anglesey | New North Wales site expected to generate 7pc of the UK’s electricity
2) Sunak and Hunt to press ahead with tax cuts in defiance of IMF warnings | IMF warns next PM faces ‘tough choices’ despite upgrading UK’s growth forecast
3) Tories accused of abandoning Port Talbot steelworkers | Labour and union bosses launch withering attack after failure to spend £100m rescue fund
4) Bank boss on £3m a year: I only took the job because I can work from home | Santander’s Mike Regnier says there’s no need to spend all five days a week in the office
5) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Europe must defend itself or be crushed by China’s export tsunami | Other world power are protecting their industrial cores – the Continent is a sitting duck
What happened overnight
Asian shares edged higher as anxious investors dared to hope that Nvidia, the chip maker at the centre of the AI boom, could meet sky-high expectations.
New Zealand’s central bank offered a sobering assessment of its inflation problems, warning that rates would have to be higher for longer to bring them to heel in a shock to local markets.
That saw the kiwi dollar jump 0.9pc to a one-month high of $0.6151 as bond yields spiked, while it surged to 17-year peaks on the relatively low-yielding yen.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.4pc, having already climbed for four straight weeks to reach a two-year top.
Chinese blue chips were little changed, just below a seven-month top hit at the start of the week.
Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.8pc as data showed a weak yen was boosting exports but also stoking imported inflation and weighing on business sentiment.
In America, stock indexes edged up to set more records. The S&P 500 rose 0.3pc, to 5,321.41 and surpassed its record set last week.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.2pc, to 16,832.62, a day after setting another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2pc, to 39,872.99, and is sitting just below its high set last week.
The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds slipped to 4.41pc from 4.48pc late on Monday.
