Thanks for joining me. We begin the week with good news for motorists as petrol and diesel prices drop at their fastest pace this year.
A typical litre of petrol has fallen to 136.15p, with diesel down to 140.87p, both of which are at thier lowest in nearly three years.
5 things to start your day
1) How Britain’s overflowing airports became Starmer’s biggest headache | UK aviation has become the battleground for a clash between net zero and the economy
2) Jim Ratcliffe’s North Sea pipeline risks closure 10 years early | Oil tax raids and drilling bans risk ‘suffocating’ the industry, warns Ineos boss
3) How trouble is brewing for the man who owns David Beckham | Jamie Salter’s burgeoning brand empire is at risk of becoming an unwieldy conglomerate
4) I saw the home working sham exposed on a Mediterranean holiday | Making flexible working a right for all employees risks damaging the economy
5) Pensions industry struggles with lump sum stampede amid fears over tax raid | Savers rush to withdraw from retirement pots amid ‘widespread concern’ ahead of Budget
What happened overnight
Asian stocks were steady ahead of central bank meetings that are widely expected to deliver two more rate cuts and key US inflation figures that should flash a green light for more easing there.
China’s central bank surprised many by lowering its 14-day repo rate by 10 basis points, a couple of days after disappointing markets by not cutting longer-term rates. That helped nudge Chinese blue chips up 0.5pc.
A holiday in Japan made for thin trading and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2pc, after bouncing 2.7pc last week.
Tokyo’s Nikkei was shut but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.4pc at 18,325.53 and Shanghai’s Composite was up 0.2pc at 2,743.11.
China’s central bank supplied 14-day cash to its banking system for the first time in months on Monday and at a lower interest rate, signalling its intent to further ease monetary conditions.
The People’s Bank of China injected 234.6bn yuan (£25bn) into the banking system through open market operations, saying it wanted to “keep quarter-end liquidity adequate at a reasonable level in the banking system”.
Monday’s injection comes ahead of China’s National Day holidays starting October1, and the cut in rates aligns the 14-day repo rate with the shorter seven-day repo rate which was cut in July.
It comes after Wall Street stocks delivered a mixed performance on Friday after a Federal Reserve official showed confidence inflation is coming down, boosting hopes for further interest rate cuts.
The S&P 500 retreated some 0.2pc while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slumped as much as 1pc during the day.
