Thanks for joining me. UBS posted the biggest quarterly profit ever recorded by any bank after its $3 billion marriage to Credit Suisse.
The bank reported profits of $29 billion in the three months to June, as the addition to Credit Suisse’s balance sheet brought its assets to about $5 trillion.
5 things to start your day with
1) Biden blocks sale of Nvidia AI chips to Middle East due to China concerns | The move follows Gulf states’ close cooperation with Beijing on key technology
2) Shapps is accused of shifting hydrogen costs to households by stealth | The “hydrogen tax” has been replaced by a tax on gas shipping companies, but consumers can still bear the costs
3) Babylon Virtual GP puts two departments in management | The company behind the NHS’s GP at Hand app has been seeking bailout or buyer funding for its business
4) Pro-Putin rapper takes over Domino’s Pizza restaurant in Russia | Pro-Kremlin figures are buying up assets as Western brands continue to leave Russia
5) Marks & Spencer returns to the FTSE 100 index | The high street giant will rejoin Britain’s blue-chip stock index four years after it fell
What happened overnight
Asian stocks are on track to record their worst month since February, with sentiment hurt by still-bleak Chinese factory readings and with investors awaiting a barrage of US data that could add to bets that interest rates have peaked.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3% and was on track for a monthly loss of 6.3%, the largest since February.
However, Tokyo stocks rose on the back of Wall Street’s gains, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 adding 0.9% to 32,619.34 and the broader Topix index rising 0.8% to 2,332.00.
Data on Thursday showed China’s manufacturing activity contracted for the fifth straight month in August, but the pace of declines eased, while the expansion in the services sector lost little momentum.
Wall Street ended higher after US economic growth was revised down for the three months through June.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed up by 0.4%, closing at 4,514.87 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 34,890.24 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.5% to 14,019.31 points.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.11% from about 4.15% before the latest release of GDP. The yield on the two-year Treasury note, which tracks the Federal Reserve’s expectations, fell to 4.88% from 4.90%.