Over here, stock markets are also trading higher, although they are off their highs. Sentiment has been lifted by optimism that a US-China trade deal is still in the offing.

• UK’s FTSE 100 index up 66 points at 7,374.21, a 0.92% gain
• Germany’s Dax up 109 points at 13,316.66, up 0.83%
• France’s CAC up 4.45 points at 5,934/24, up 0.08%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB down 5.83 points at 23,459.03, down 0.01%

The pound is slightly lower against the dollar and the euro, at $1.2942 and €1.1677.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq opened at record highs – the Dow rose almost 44 points, or 0.16%, to 28,079.76 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 28.08 points, or 0.33%, to 8,578.02.

Thank you for all your great comments. Good-bye – we’ll be back tomorrow.

Ding Dong: The Dow Jones and Nasdaq have hit new record highs. The Dow opened almost 36 points, or 0.13% higher, at 28,072.10, while the Nasdaq advanced 27 points, or 0.32%, to 8,577.07.

The latest US housing data are out, and they are strong. Housebuilding rebounded in October and the number of permits for future home construction jumped 5% to 1.46m, the highest level since May 2007.

The number of homes on which construction started rose 3.8% to 1.31m last month, according to the US Commerce Department.

Indian-owned Tata Steel, the owner of the Port Talbot steelworks, plans to cut 3,000 jobs across Europe – but unions in Britain and the Netherlands have vowed to fight the plans.

Tata announced the cuts late last night as the steel industry struggles with weak demand and high costs. In June, competition authorities blocked a joint venture with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp.

Unions in Britain and the Netherlands said they had been given a jobs guarantee until 2021 following the collapse of that deal. Frits van Wieringen, President of Tata Steel’s European works council, said it would take time to work out detail, but warned of “a very serious confrontation in the Netherlands”.

There is no justification whatsoever to cut over 1,500 jobs here, and it will be impossible to find any kind of compromise over that.

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the British steelworkers union Community, said British workers would also be “robustly defending” the 2021 jobs agreement.

Rebecca Long Bailey, Labour’s shadow business secretary, also weighed in, saying:

This is terrible news for Tata Steel workers, made all the worse coming just before Christmas.

This Conservative government has failed to support our manufacturing industry and people are paying for that failure with their livelihoods. It speaks volumes that the business secretary Andrea Leadsom cancelled a meeting with the steel industry only last month. They just don’t care.

Labour will bring the real change our country needs through investment and confidence in our domestic industry.

Here is a quick round-up of today’s corporate news. An independent report by a law firm into TSB’s IT meltdown in 2018 has found the bank’s board lacked “common sense” and shifted customers to a new IT platform before it had been fully tested.

EasyJet has outlined its ambition to become the world’s first major airline to operate net-zero carbon flights across its entire network, announcing it would offset all emissions.

The UK government is set to wave through the £4bn takeover of the British defence company Cobham by Advent after the US private equity group made legally binding promises to address national security concerns.

Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest and biggest insurance market, has launched a #SpeakUp campaign to encourage more people to speak up against unacceptable behaviour.

The organisation, which dates back to 1686, was forced to act after Bloomberg reported evidence from 18 women of widespread sexual harassment ranging from inappropriate remarks to physical assault.

Lloyd’s immediately responded by setting up a bullying and harassment helpline in April, and commissioned a survey to gauge the scale of the problems. That survey found nearly 500 people working in the insurance market had either suffered or observed sexual harassment in the past 12 months – findings that the Lloyd’s boss John Neal described as “truly terrible”.

The survey also found that 38% of respondents did not know who to raise concerns to in the Lloyd’s market and only 45% of people felt comfortable enough to raise a concern.

Seeking to address this, the new campaign aims to give clear guidance on what individuals should do if they see or experience unacceptable behaviour. Advertisements, banners and vinyl posters will feature prominently within the Lloyd’s building in London as part of the campaign, together with easily accessible guides and online information (Lloyds.com/speakup).

Neal said:

At Lloyd’s we expect all market participants to act with integrity, be respectful and always speak up. I hope this campaign encourages more people to do so. You will be heard, you will be supported, and we will act, because no matter what form it takes, harassment is never acceptable.

The ambition here is to make a positive difference in many people’s lives, by empowering individuals to act and intervene when they witness unacceptable behaviour. I think everyone has a role to play. Lloyd’s leadership is fully committed to transforming the culture at Lloyd’s with shared values that will shape the behaviours, choices and actions of everyone in the marketplace.

Lloyd’s has also banned daytime drinking at its in-house bar, One Under Lime. Around 45,000 people work in the market – thousands of brokers and underwriters who are employed by 100 insurers and 300 broking firms, as well as 1,000 staff directly employed by Lloyd’s.

The CBI industrial trends survey is out. It suggests British manufacturers enjoyed a pick-up in orders in November, after hitting a nine-year low the month before, as the risk of a no-deal Brexit receded.

The survey showed 13% of manufacturers reported total order books to be above normal while 40% said they were below normal this month, resulting in a net balance of -26%, up from -37% in October. It remains below the long-run average of -13%.

Goldman Sachs is predicting that the drag on the global economy from the trade war between the US and China – the world’s two biggest economies – will gradually fade next year.

Jan Hatzius and other economists at the US investment bank wrote in a note yesterday that the progress towards a partial trade deal and expectations of an extended truce should benefit the world economy – assuming there is no further escalation of tariffs. The US is due to impose more tariffs on Chinese goods on 15 December, if an agreement is not struck by then.

The 18-month trade war is currently shaving 0.5 percentage points from the growth rates in both the US and China, the Goldman Sachs economists estimate.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, has sent us his thoughts on the “bull market” and tonight’s TV clash.

European markets are rallying and US futures are already pointing to solid gains, as risk appetite comes storming back following a mixed session yesterday. It is almost as if this is still a bull market.

Disturbances in Hong Kong have failed to dent the bullish view, and with trade wars still mercifully quiet the indices appear to have taken the bit between their teeth – European indices are surging in impressive fashion, and even the FTSE 100 is powering higher.

Today sees the first clash on TV between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, a discussion likely to generate more heat than light. Both leaders know their polling has picked up of late, and will want to continue that move, while the poor Lib Dems will have to wait for another way of boosting their flagging position. There is still plenty of time to go, but one imagines Conservative Central Office will be very pleased with the overall position so far.

Global shares are pushing higher again as traders bet on a trade deal between the US and China. The clock is ticking, though – a preliminary deal needs to be agreed before 15 December, when Washington is due to impose a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, edged up 0.1% to its highest level since January last year.

The broad Euro Stoxx 600 index advanced 0.4% to hit its highest level since July 2015. Germany’s Dax is now 0.59% ahead while the FTSE 100 index in London has advanced 0.71%. Wall Street futures are pointing to a higher open on the other side of the Atlantic, rising 0.2%.

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

The waiting game continues for the US-China trade deal. Chinese state media described the latest discussions, held by phone over the weekend, as “constructive,” but a report from CNBC suggested yesterday that the mood in Beijing was pessimistic. Doubts have crept in over whether a preliminary deal can be struck, and when.

Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank’ Asia Treasury Department in Singapore, told Reuters:

There are some lingering doubts over whether a phase one deal can be struck. The suspicion is that there’s a lot more wrinkles to iron out than initially thought.

In a positive sign, the Trump administration issued a new 90-day extension allowing US companies to continue to do business with China’s Huawei Technologies while US regulators work on rules on telecommunications firms that pose a risk to national security.

The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has dragged on well for over a year. David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, says:

In the middle of next month, the Trump administration will introduce fresh tariffs on roughly $156bn worth of Chinese imports, unless something changes. Some traders are hoping phase one of the overall trade deal will be agreed upon by then so there will be no need to press ahead with new tariffs.

Mr Trump would like more concessions from China in relation to intellectual property rights, but for now he doesn’t want to reverse tariffs, but China are open to the idea of rolling back on the levies. The toing and froing of the trade spat will probably continue up until when the next round of US levies are set to kick in, and then we could see some constructive talks.

Asian stock markets are mixed – the Shanghai composite index gained 0.78%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.29% and the Australian market advanced 0.7%. Sentiment was lifted by hopes that Beijing will provide more stimulus after yesterday’s rate cut from the People’s Bank of China.

However, other markets are down – Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.53%, as exporters came under pressure from a firmer yen against the dollar, while the South Korean Kospi slipped 0.34%.

The pound has performed well as the Conservative Party is leading in the polls, and after Boris Johnson declared that all Tory candidates standing in next month’s election had promised to back the deal he brokered with the EU.

The pound is inching higher this morning, trading below $1.30 at $1.2959, following the prime minister’s speech at the CBI’s annual conference yesterday. He will square up to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in the first televised election debate tonight at 8pm on ITV.

European stocks are expected to open slightly higher, close to the record highs struck recently.

Agenda

• 11am GMT: CBI industrial trends (November)
• Shadow chancellor John McDonnell speech on the economy in London
• 1.30pm GMT: US Housing starts (October)