Thanks for joining me. Public sector borrowing was more than expected in November and ahead of last year in a blow to the Chancellor’s tax cut ambitions.
Net public sector borrowing excluding banks was £24.4 billion higher in the eight months to November than in the same period last year, at £116.4 billion.
For November, total Treasury borrowing excluding public sector banks was £14.3bn, beating economists’ expectations of £13bn.
5 things to start your day
1) Warner Bros. and Paramount are planning a massive £30bn Hollywood merger | Warner is expected to dominate the combined business
2) Investors are betting that interest rates could start to fall by March after the sudden drop in inflation | Lower fuel prices and easing food costs helped the CPI fall to 3.9% in November
3) BT is scrambling to snatch up Huawei technology before the New Year’s Eve deadline | The telecoms giant risks a hefty fine if it fails to remove the group from “core” networks by December 31
4) More trucks are blocking highways after plans for rail freight were scaled back | Ministers reject the move which could have seen 20 million lorries take off the roads
5) Tom Stephenson: My prediction for 2024 is that the FTSE 100 will boom | A recession could arrive in 2024, but with luck, any decline will be shallow
What happened overnight
Asian shares fell after Wall Street snapped a long winning streak, while US Treasury yields approached five-month lows on hopes that a sharp decline in inflation in Britain will be echoed in looming US price data.
Tokyo stocks closed lower after Toyota announced a recall of 1 million vehicles, and its subsidiary Daihatsu decided to suspend shipments of all models due to rigged safety tests.
The benchmark Nikkei index lost 1.6 percent, or 535.47 points, to close at 33,140.47 points, while the broader Topix index fell 1 percent, or 23.40 points, to 2,325.98 points.
Australian shares fell 0.4%, while the CSI300 index of Chinese shares remained unchanged. It is on track to post its sixth straight weekly loss, which would be its worst weekly performance in 12 years and its fifth straight monthly loss.
Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday after gains fueled last week by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who indicated that interest rate cuts should happen next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading US companies fell 1.3% to 37,082.00, while the S&P 500 fell 1.5% to close at 4,698.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.5 percent to 14,777.94 points.
US Treasury yields have fallen since late October on hopes of lower interest rates, then fell again after encouraging UK inflation data. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.85% from 3.93% late Tuesday.