Thanks for joining us. Retailers have warned that the rising minimum wage and increasing tax bills could prolong the inflation pain felt by shoppers.
However, the British Retail Consortium also said that in January shop price inflation fell to its lowest level since May 2022.
5 things to start your day
1) Sunak urges rail firms to use minimum service level powers during strikes | Prime Minister calls for train operators to ‘act in the best interests of passengers’ by providing at least 40 per cent of normal services
2) Why China’s great property bust threatens to backfire on the West | Evergrande’s liquidation marks an almighty battle between Wall Street and Beijing
3) Tory Teesside Mayor’s freeport project cleared of corruption | The inquiry was triggered following claims of sweetheart deals at the former steelworks site in Redcar
4) Ben Marlow: BP is lost in net zero no-man’s land | The oil giant must get off the fence – or face the growing risk of a hostile takeover
5) Andrew Orlowski: Self-driving cars are journeying into a moral black hole | The dangerous self-driving experiment is turning us all into human guinea pigs
What happened overnight
Asian stocks stumbled as the court-ordered liquidation of property giant China Evergrande weighed on sentiment.
Uncertainty around how the court order to liquidate Evergrande Group will play out and its impact on the nation’s fragile property market is keeping investors on edge.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 1.7pc, with the mainland properties index down 3pc. China stocks fell 0.7pc and were on course for a near 4pc drop for the month.
Tokyo’s key Nikkei index closed modestly higher supported by overnight Wall Street rallies, with traders’ focus shifting to corporate earnings.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.1pc, or 38.92 points, to 36,065.86, while the broader Topix index ended down 0.1pc, or 2.55 points, at 2,526.93.
American and European shares surged on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing at a new record close and European shares hitting a two-year high, as markets slashed ambitious bets at the end of 2023 on interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6pc to finish at 38,333.45, while the S&P 500 returned to record territory with a 0.8pc gain to 4,927.93. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index climbed 1.1 percent to 15,628.04.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds fell 8.6 basis points to 4.07pc.