It’s the first day of September, and for many in the city, the first day back after the August break.
We’re expecting a busy week, and the City AM paper returns tomorrow after a two-week break.
However, the week is expected to start off slowly for the FTSE 100. Monday is Labour Day in the US, and markets are closed for the public holiday.
On the economic front, eurozone inflation data is expected on Tuesday, followed by a flurry of US employment data on Thursday.
On Friday, UK retail sales for July are expected to rise 0.3 per cent month on month, from 0.9 per cent in June.
On the earnings front, we expect to hear from Ashmore with its full-year earnings, and house builder Vistry has a half-year trading update scheduled.
Safestore and Currys are also expected to publish trading updates this week.
Overnight, Asia struggled after last week’s tech troubles on Wall Street.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.0 per cent, led by a 9 per cent slide in chip group Advantest, which finally ran into selling after climbing 49 per cent in the past three months. South Korea’s market slipped 0.7 per cent.
Chinese blue chips edged up 0.2 per cent, while Hong Kong shares of Alibaba jumped almost 19 per cent in the biggest one-day rise since early 2022 on optimism over its cloud business.
At 6:30am on Monday, the pound was trading higher against the US dollar at $1.3527, while gold was trading $27 per ounce higher at $3,474 per ounce. The FTSE 100 was called to open flat.