Pound hits two-year high against euro

Thanks for joining me. We begin the day looking at the latest official retail sales figures, which show a slowdown in growth in September.

The drop was driven by a 2.4pc decline in sales volumes in supermarkets, which retailers blamed on poor weather and consumers cutting back.

5 things to start your day 

1) Reeves considers scrapping salary sacrifice tax breaks for electric cars | Chancellor exploring plans to remove ‘unfair’ schemes amid claims they disproportionately benefit wealthy

2) Red tape threatens to turn City into a ‘graveyard’, warns Bank of England official | Sam Woods says prospect of more financial rules could undermine risk-taking in Britain

3) Scrapping non-dom tax regime ‘will cost Britain £6.5bn’ | Abolishing tax status is expected to cost the UK in lost GDP and jobs, think tank says

4) Don’t bow down to striking workers, Ryanair boss urges Boeing | Michael O’Leary backs decision to abandon pay talks despite threat of aircraft delays

5) Stringfellows hit with winding up petition in row with taxman | West End lap dancing club insists it is ‘very much solvent’ amid dispute over unpaid bills

What happened overnight 

China said its economy grew 4.6pc year-on-year in the third quarter, the slowest pace recorded in one and a half years.

Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics put the figures down to a “complicated and severe external environment… as well as new problems of domestic economic development”.

However, retail sales and industrial output rose more than expected in September which boosted the markets.

Shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai edged up in the morning, while there were also gains in Tokyo thanks to a weaker yen.

Wellington, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta also rose, but Sydney, Singapore and Seoul edged down.

Gold rose past $2,700 to a new record.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4pc, to 43,239.05, the S&P 500 was flat at 5,841.47, and the Nasdaq Composite closed flat at 18,373.61.

In the bond market, the yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose to 4.098pc, from 4.016pc late on Wednesday.