Thanks for joining us. We begin the week with figures showing that the number of job vacancies in January tumbled by 15pc compared to the same month last year.
Higher interest rates have stretched business budgets, as vacancies fell below 900,000 for the first time since April 2021, according to jobs website Adzuna.
5 things to start your day
1) Britain to harness power of Sahara solar farms using 700 ft ship | World’s biggest cable-laying vessel will link Moroccan renewables with Devon substation
2) Youth long-term sickness is driving labour crisis, research suggests | People in their 20s are more likely to claim they are too sick to work than those in their 30s and 40s
3) Why Germany is (literally) the sick man of Europe | Increasing illness rates diagnose EU’s largest economy with wider malaise
4) Britons at risk of lower pay than migrants under new visa salary rules | Threshold increase could prompt companies to pay foreign workers more than UK ones
5) Lucy Burton: Britain needs to ditch its petty obsession with fat cat pay | Attacks on high earners help fuel US-bound exodus of listed businesses
What happened overnight
Tokyo’s key Nikkei index closed at a fresh all-time high after two of the three main US indices hit records last week, although Asian markets were mostly lower.
Investors are turning to profit-taking as last week’s mega market rally – fuelled by stellar results from US technology titan Nvidia – loses steam, analysts say.
The Nikkei 225 index added 0.4pc, or 135.03 points, to 39,233.71, while the broader Topix index rose 0.5pc, or 12.91 points, to 2,673.62.
But Chinese shares faltered, with Hong Kong and Shanghai both down 0.4pc.
Singapore dropped 1pc and Seoul fell 0.6pc. Bangkok, Jakarta and Wellington were lower, but Sydney and Taipei inched up.
Oil prices were down, extending losses on Friday as the G7 countries pledged new sanctions on Russia two years after its invasion of Ukraine.
US stock markets finished mixed on Friday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 hitting fresh peaks, while the Nasdaq slipped slightly following Thursday’s Nvidia-fuelled surge.
