More than £3.5bn wiped off Ford and GM amid warnings over Chinese risk
Thanks for joining me. The EU’s target to ban sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles poses a “grave crisis” for European car makers, Italy’s industry minister has said.
Adolfo Urso said the path to the ban was “not sustainable” and called for an urgent review of the plan to ban sales by 2035.
5 things to start your day
1) Reeves prepares to rewrite debt rules to free up to £50bn in spending | Chancellor gives clearest signal yet over desire to relax rules ahead of maiden Budget
2) Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend gets two-year prison sentence for FTX fraud | Caroline Ellison had pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy
3) Europe’s richest man goes to war with French journalists | Unions sign open letter after Bernard Arnault issues staff with formal block on speaking to press
4) Miliband sends armed police to guard gas terminals amid net zero protests | Civil Nuclear Constabulary to expand its presence as climate activists target fossil fuels
5) Jeremy Warner: We should be welcoming China’s electric car makers, not sanctioning them | Punishing mandates threaten a trade war with consequences well beyond the auto industry. Britain must resist them at all costs
What happened overnight
Chinese stocks jumped higher as a rally pushed into a second day after Beijing announced a flurry of measures aimed at reviving the housing market after a prolonged downturn.
The dollar dipped to a two-and-a-half-year low against the pound after weak US macroeconomic data overnight boosted the case for a second super-sized interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve’s next meeting. Gold renewed an all-time peak.
Mainland Chinese blue chips advanced 2.4pc, following a 4.3pc jump in the prior session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 2pc, adding to Tuesday’s 4.1pc surge.
The strong start for Chinese stocks briefly invigorated other regional indexes, but those gains soon fizzled, with Australia’s benchmark last flat and South Korea’s Kospi declining 0.1pc.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.9pc higher.
Japan’s Nikkei shook off early weakness to rise 0.4pc, buoyed mainly by a stabilisation in the yen exchange rate and Wall Street’s rise to new record highs overnight.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2pc, to 42,208.22, the S&P 500 rose 0.3pc, to 5,732.93, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6pc, to 18,074.52.
In the bond market, the yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes was down at 3.73pc from 3.76pc late on Monday.
