Today's news headlines: 

‘Sunak pledges £500m to boost UK workforce as supply crises threaten Tories’. The Christmas period is fast approaching, and the Tory party has planned to put aside £500m to get people back into work as the furlough scheme comes to an end. This extra cash injection will come alongside the expansion of the 'Plan for Jobs' scheme, which was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to preserve jobs. The kickstart campaign will also be provided with extra funding into next year. Military personnel are likely to be deployed on Monday in areas of the South East to aid with fuel deliveries. Although the situation has improved in the last week, things still remain tentative in some regions as labour supply continues to drag on productivity. (Financial Times)

‘Massive data leak exposes hidden wealth of world leaders’. In one of the largest leaks of financial information, the so-called 'Pandora Papers' have revealed how some of the world's most powerful use offshore tax havens to hide their wealth. It reveals how ex-Prime minister Tony Blair in 2017 bought a £6.5m office in Marylebone through a shell company owned by a Bahrain minister, saving £312,000 in property taxes. The location of the release of the papers cannot be pinpointed to one place, with data being published from multiple different offshore havens, including Switzerland, Seychelles, and Hong Kong. (Financial Times)

Today

On Friday, European markets continued their losses as the FTSE 100 ended the trading session down 0.84% while the Euro Stoxx 600 closed 0.42% lower. The US 10-year Treasury yield remains elevated at the start of the week at 1.47%. Most major currency pairs are flat this morning, with Cable trading at $1.3561 and EUR/USD holding above $1.16. 

Events

Japan Monetary Base y/y: 11.7% vs 14.9% last month 
Switzerland Retail Sales y/y: 0.5% vs -2.3% last month
Spanish Unemployment Change: -76.1K in September vs -82.6K in August
US Factory Orders m/m: 3:00PM
OPEC meetings: All day

Interbank rates:

GBP/USD – 1.3552
GBP/EUR – 1.1676
EUR/USD – 1.1607
USD/CAD – 1.2629

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