Thanks for joining me. House prices increased for a fourth month in a row following the recent reduction in mortgage rates from lenders, according to the latest Halifax house price index.
Average house prices increased to £291,029, which was £3,900 more than last month.
5 things to start your day
1) Lockdown generation lacks basic workplace skills, says City grandee | Employers have noticed the negative impact on young recruits of lockdown measures, according to Baroness McGregor-Smith
2) Bank of England pushed Britain into recession, economists say | Threadneedle Street has refused to communicate interest rates plan, economists say
3) Why resurgent Ireland can’t afford to reunite – yet | Financial burden of absorbing the North could weigh down Dublin’s buoyant economy
4) AI will trigger global surge in gas demand, says BP boss | Boom in tools such as ChatGPT means data centres require more power
5) Jeremy Warner: The cost of lockdown is still becoming more devastating by the day | Young Britons will continue to pay the price of lost education for a generation to come
What happened overnight
Asian stocks firmed on Wednesday as investors waited to see if Beijing’s increasingly frantic efforts to prop up its sagging share markets would actually work, while bonds enjoyed a reprieve from recent selling.
In recent days, China’s regulators have announced further curbs on short selling and state investors said they were expanding their stock buying plans.
Bloomberg News also reported President Xi Jinping would discuss the stock market with financial regulators, though there was no confirmation this had happened or what was discussed.
However, the jury is very much out on how effective all this will prove and the blue chip index inched up 0.4% in choppy early trade, while Shanghai stocks added 0.9%.
Tokyo’s blue-chip Nikkei shares drifted lower as investors digested corporate earnings.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index eased 0.1pc, or 40.74 points, to end at 36,119.92, while the broader Topix index added 0.4pc, or 10.70 points, at 2,549.95.
Wall Street drifted higher during a quiet Tuesday as the bond market calmed down following some sharp swings.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2pc, to 4,954.23, and nearly returned to its all-time high set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading American companies gained 0.4pc, to 38,521.36, and the Nasdaq Composite index edged up by 0.1pc, to 15,609.00.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds relaxed following its slingshot ride higher in recent days. It eased to 4.09pc from 4.17pc late on Monday.