Good morning. Markets await October inflation figures with analysts predicting that UK consumer price inflation will ease to 1.6pc from 1.7pc last month.
Elsewhere, the FTSE 100 is set to open in the red after US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the trade war with China overnight.
5 things to start your day
1) A Chinese CCTV company which is a major supplier to councils and the NHShas been advertising cameras that can racially profile Uighur Muslims, amid a brutal crackdown by the Communist regime. Hikvision – which has sold more than 1.3m cameras in the UK – supplies surveillance equipment to the Chinese authorities in the province of Xianjing, where Uighurs are allegedly oppressed and imprisoned in vast “re-education camps”.
2)Donald Trump’s general election lesson for Boris Johnson: trade wars lose voters. Trump’s electoral losses last year offers serious lessons to Boris Johnson as he hopes to convince voters to back him and “get Brexit done”.
3) Tesla willbuild its first European factory in Berlin, chief executive Elon Musk has announced. The electric car company’s fourth “gigafactory” will be built on the outskirts of the German capital, Mr Musk confirmed at an awards ceremony in the country on Tuesday night.
4) The High-Speed 2 rail link has descended into chaos after the deputy chairman of a Government-commissioned reviewissued a withering attack on its own draft findings. Lord Berkeley demanded his name is removed from the report after it endorsed the project, despite saying costs may spiral out of control and breach the current estimate of £ 88 bn.
5)Taxpayers could suffer a £ 100 m hit from British Steeleven if a provisional deal to sell it to Chinese company Jingye goes through. The collapsed firm is racking up losses of £ 1m a day while on Government life support amid frantic efforts to secure a buyer, according to multiple sources familiar with its accounts.
What happened overnight
Stocks in Asia fell Wednesday alongside US and European futures as investors continued to weigh the likelihood of a partial trade deal as well as unrest in Hong Kong. The kiwi jumped after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand unexpectedly kept interest rates unchanged.
Hong Kong’s benchmark declined more than 2pc as the city faced a third-straight day of heightened tensions. Japanese shares retreated along with those in South Korea and Australia.
S&P 500 futures slipped after the US equities gauge closed just shy of its all-time high . President Donald Trump didn’t add much insight on US-China trade talks Tuesday: he said a deal could happen soon, but warned of tariff hikes without an agreement.
Coming up today
It hasn’t been an easy year for pub owners – sales of beer have fallen by more than a third in 10 years, and thousands of Greene King pubs are facing closure after the business was swooped on by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at JD Wetherspoon’s share price, which has risen by more than a quarter in the year to date. In September, Tim Martin, the chairman, said his pub chain would see sales continue to grow and prices remain low, although profit has slipped in recent periods.
Full-year results:Avon Rubber
Interim results:Renold, Speedy Hire, SSE, Wincanton
Trading Updates:JD Wetherspoon
Economics:EU industrial production, Consumer price index, Retail price index
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