Today's top story: Fresh Cabinet split surfaces over post-Brexit immigration system
Today's leader: The world could do with more visionaries like Elon Musk
New battle lines have been drawn within Theresa Mays Cabinet over Britain's post-Brexit immigration system, stoking divisions even further and presenting the Prime Minister with yet another headache.
City A.M. understands that home secretary Sajid Javid is pushing for an Australian points-based system, thus dropping the other model that was up for consideration under his predecessor, which would have favoured EU citizens by effectively granting them an automatic visa.
Meanwhile a further escalation in the looming trade war has been given a cost of £265bn to the global economy, according to forecasts from consultancy Oxford Economics. Global stock markets shuddered yesterday as fears mounted, as Chinese equities faced one of their worst days of the year so far.
Wall Street experienced a volatile day of trading, while the FTSE 100 lost more than one per cent. While the Dow managing three consecutive positive closes has not done enough to boost investor sentiment in Asian markets overnight, European bourses are predicted to bounce back slightly this morning.
However investor dread over an impending 6 July deadline for the US to issue tariffs on $34bn worth of Chinese goods, which Beijing is expected to reciprocate, agitated Chinese shares yesterday as they fell to another nine-month low.
It's positive numbers all round in Europe, as the FTSE is expected to open 0.45 per cent higher at 7,582, while Germany's Dax will rise by 0.57 per cent to 12,308. The French Cac is expected to lift by 0.42 per cent to open at 5,299, according to IG.
MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan tumbled 1.4 per cent as markets opened this morning, its lowest since 29 September, while the Nikkei's average was down 0.86 per cent to a near three-month low. Chinese shares continued to slide, as the Shanghai Composite index dropped by 1.9 per cent to a fresh 28 month low.
Corporate news
- Commerzbank – has reached an agreement this morning with French bank Societe Generale to sell its equity markets and commodities business, which will include the transfer of its trading books, client franchise, staff and tech infrastructure
- Ryanair – In its June traffic statistics, the full burden of French traffic control strikes was evident. The airline had over 1,100 flight cancellations last month, compared to just 41 cancellations in June 2017
- Smurfit Kappa – has completed the acquisition of Dutch recycling business Reparenco for €460m (£407.3m)
Data
- 9.30 – UK PMI Construction
- 10.00 – EU Retail Sales
- 11.00 – EU Producer Price Index
