Right, time for a quick recap.

Britain’s stock market has closed at a new peak tonight, on the first trading day since Christmas.

The FTSE 100 hit a record closing high, propelled by mining companies as optimism for the world economy in 2018 boosted commodity prices.

The smaller FTSE 250 also finished at its highest ever level, partly due to a takeover bid for office manager IWG (which closed 27% higher).

The rally came as new data showed that the world’s 500 richest people had collectively gained $1tn in 2017.

But it was a volatile day for bitcoin. After surging 13% yesterday, the digital currency has fallen back this afternoon.

It’s currently down 4% at $15,094 - having been valued at almost $20,000 10 days ago.

This latest fluctuation came after Israel’s stock market regulator suggested it could ban cryptocurrency firms from listing on the Tel Aviv exchange.

That’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading and commenting. GW

Newsflash: the FTSE 100 index has closed at a new all time high of 7,620 points.

Mining companies and supermarkets helped the index rise on the first trading day since Christmas.

Newsflash: US consumer confidence has fallen back from its recent highs.

The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence, just released, dropped to 122.1 in December, down from November’s 129.5 - which was the highest in 17 years.

Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, says:

“The decline in confidence was fueled by a somewhat less optimistic outlook for business and job prospects in the coming months,”

Newsflash: Britain’s FTSE 100 has just hit a new all-time high, following the lead set by its little brother, the FTSE 250.

The index of the biggest companies listed in London has risen by 22 points, or 0.3%, to 7615 - nudging over the previous intraday record set last Friday.

The jump in commodity prices today, such as copper, has pushed mining stocks up (silver miner Fresnillo is the top performer, up almost 3%), with other natural resource companies also up.

This means the FTSE 100 has gained around 6.6% this year, lagging behind other indexes such as the US Dow Jones (+25%), Germany’s DAX (+13%) or the Hong Kong Hang Seng (+34%).

Meanwhile a new poll in Greece has revealed that most citizens are not buying the leftist-led government’s cheery vision of a ‘clean exit’ from international supervision when the country’s latest bailout programme officially ends next year.

Helena Smith reports from Athens

In theory, Greeks should be going into the new year on an optimistic note. After seven years of gruelling austerity – the price of three economic adjustment programmes that have kept the debt stricken country afloat – Athens’ latest bailout officially expires in August 2018.

But the excoriating terms attached to financial rescue won’t end there, with the result that most Greeks are not buying government assertions of post-bailout bliss come the summer.

Instead, a poll conducted on behalf of the Real News newspaper by MRB Hellas found that 66.3% of respondents are convinced that international monitoring of Greek finances will continue in some form.

A mere 17% accept the official version: that Greece will make a ‘clean exit,’ weaning itself off borrowed funds by returning to international capital markets. Under that scenario – one vividly expanded by prime minister Alexis Tsipras – Athens will have completed a compliance review in time for the country to build up a cash buffer that would enable it to return to markets and begin debt relief talks by the summer.

However, only one in four Greeks expect a market return. Three out of five don’t think Greece would be able to tap markets to cover debt payments, according to the survey.

Boom! Britain’s FTSE 250 index, which contains medium-sized companies too small for the FTSE 100, has hit a new alltime high.

The FTSE 250 has gained 59 points to 20,540 this morning, putting it ahead of the previous record high set on 22 December.

Offices group International Workplace Group (IWG) is leading the rally; its shares have jumped by almost 30% today after receiving a takeover offer from Canada’s Onex and Brookfield Asset Management.

The FTSE 100 is also close to a record high today, up 13 points at 7606.

Other European markets are lagging, though, with Germany’s DAX down 0.3% and Spain’s IBEX down 0.2%.

Henry Croft at Accendo Markets explains:

Miners are leading the FTSE’s charge higher after Copper traded a fresh three and half year high on Christmas Day, however a significant contribution from Oilers, the index’s largest sector, is aiding the latest foray in record territory.

Continued concern as to the impact of last week’s Catalonian election victory for pro-independence parties, as well as a Euro recovery from its Christmas Day ‘flash crash’, are both weighing on mainland European equities, while US futures are clawing back gains following a negative Boxing day session impacted by an Apple sell-off.

The world’s wealthiest people needn’t worry about their incomes being squeezed, though.

New figures from Bloomberg show that the 500 richest people in the world saw their respective wealth expand by an astonishing 23% during 2017, from $4.4 trillion to over $5.3 trillion.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, had the best year - gaining over $34bn to become the world’s richest person at around $99.6bn, thanks to the surge in Amazon’s share price.

The report also shows that lesser (!) billionaires also had a vintage year, as the strong gains on the world’s stock markets made the richest even richer (at a time when the average household in the UK was suffering from falling real wages)

Here are some of the key points from Bloomberg’s report:

• The 38 Chinese billionaires on the Bloomberg index added $177 billion in 2017, a 65 percent gain that was the biggest of the 49 countries represented.
• Hui Ka Yan, founder of developer China Evergrande Group, added $25.9 billion, a 350 percent jump from last year, and the second-biggest U.S. dollar gain on the index, after Bezos.
• Technology billionaire Ma Huateng, co-founder of messaging service Tencent Holdings, became Asia’s second-richest person when his fortune nearly doubled to $41 billion.
• The number of Asian billionaires surpassed the U.S. for the first time, according to a UBS Group AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
• The U.S. has the largest presence on the index, with 159 billionaires who added $315 billion, an 18 percent gain that gives them a collective net worth of $2 trillion.
• Russia’s 27 richest people put behind them the economic pain that followed President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, adding $29 billion to $275 billion, surpassing the collective net worth they had before western economic sanctions began.
• It was also a banner year for tech moguls, with the 57 technology billionaires on the index adding $262 billion, a 35 percent increase that was the most of any sector on the ranking.

Here’s the full story, which could fuel calls for higher wealth taxes to tackle the growing gap between the richest and everyone else.

Tech companies are suffering a hangover this morning, following reports that sales of Apple’s new iPhone X have been disappointing.

Yesterday Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported that Apple will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the first quarter to 30 million units, down from 50 million.

This hit Asian chip makers overnight, and European technology companies are now following - sending the Stoxx 600 tech index down 1%.

Austrian-based Apple supplier AMS is the biggest casualty, down almost 10%

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

There’s a subdued atmosphere in the City of London this morning as traders struggle through the drizzle back to their desks following the Christmas break.

But bitcoin is defying the quiet mood, and staging a strong recovery after its sharp plunge last week which saw it fall from around $19,000 to just $14,000 in two days.

The price of bitcoin surged by 13% on Tuesday, and it’s extending those gains again this morning - currently changing hands at around $16,200.

That should relieve those who jumped into the cryptocurrency arena in recent weeks, but may also spur concerns that the bitcoin bubble is still inflating.

The rally comes despite another crackdown against bitcoin, this time from Israel.

On Monday, Israel’s stock market regulator revealed plans to ban companies based on digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, declared that the public need to be protected from potentially unscrupulous bitcoin operations:

“If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended.”

Hauser, who clearly isn’t a fan of bitcoin, added:

“I think it looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble, acts like a bubble and feels like a bubble.

This tough stance may embolden other regulators to take a closer look at bitcoin, which could mean further volatility in the weeks ahead.

Apart from bitcoin, City traders will also be watching out for new UK home loan data this morning, and US consumer confidence stats this afternoon (unless they slope off early to finish off the mince pies).

The agenda:

• 9:30am GMT: UK mortgage approvals data for November
  
• 3pm GMT: US Consumer Confidence index for December
  

Update: the mortgage approvals figures have been pushed back to Thursday.