Thanks for joining me. We begin with the latest impending exit from the London Stock Exchange after Keyword Studios agreed to accept a bid from private equity giant EQT worth £2.2bn.
The board of the video games services company unanimously accepted the cash bid, which was worth £24.50 per share.
5 things to start your day
1) Le Pen must not launch reckless spending spree, warns Lagarde | European Central Bank warns member countries of need for financial stability
2) Blow for UK holidaymakers as dozens of EU airports unprepared for post-Brexit rules | Airline bosses’ warning amid struggles to introduce fingerprint technology
3) Marks & Spencer denies giving up on the high street | Retailer unveils plans to open 80,000 sq ft store in Bristol in £38m investment
4) Labour’s net zero plans face ‘major hurdles’ amid weak demand for electric cars | Less than half of vehicle sales expected to be EVs by 2030, research shows
5) Jeremy Warner: Labour may have no choice but to reintroduce free movement | Coaxing the leisured masses back into the workforce won’t be enough to fulfil Starmer’s housebuilding ambitions
What happened overnight
Asian shares were mostly higher after Tesla shares zoomed up more than 10pc, helping to drive US benchmarks to new records.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.9pc to 40,425.27. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained nearly 0.3pc to 7,740.00. South Korea’s Kospi edged up nearly 0.1pc to 2,782.42. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.9pc to 17,924.43, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.3pc to 2,989.51.
Asian investors were cheered by hopes for an interest rate cut in the US. But some traders were keeping to the sidelines ahead of Thursday’s Independence Day holiday in the US.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 161.63 Japanese yen from 161.43 yen. The euro cost $1.0747, little changed from $1.0749.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 added 0.6pc to 5,509.01, topping its all-time high set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4pc to 39,331.85, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.8pc to 18,028.76, besting its own record set a day earlier.
Tesla led the way with a 10.2pc jump after the electric-vehicle maker reported a milder drop in sales for the spring than analysts expected. Modest gains for other big, influential stocks also helped lift the market, including a 1.6pc climb for Apple.
Stocks got a lift from easing Treasury yields after the head of the Federal Reserve made comments that investors took as a signal for possible cuts to interest rates later this year. Fed chairman Jerome Powell gave a nod to improvements in inflation data after some disappointingly high readings early in the year.
