The pound is stable against the dollar and the euro, after enjoying its strongest monthly rise since 2009 in October. It rose 5.2% over the month from around $1.22 to just below $1.30 (last week it went above $1.30).

At the moment it is trading at $1.2961 against the dollar, up 0.14%, and at €1.1611 against the euro, up 0.03%.

With this, we are signing off for the day. Thank you for all your comments, and have a great weekend. We’ll be back next week.

Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at UK consultancy Capital Economics, has sent us his thoughts.

The muted rebound in the ISM manufacturing index to 48.3 in October, which left it only slightly higher that September’s 10-year low of 47.8, may dampen some of the enthusiasm in the markets following the better-than-expected payrolls data released earlier today. The drags on the economy from weak global growth and lingering trade uncertainty haven’t yet dissipated and we suspect that the Fed still has a little more work to do.

However, US stocks are unfazed by the ISM manufacturing survey. Traders have been cheered by the stronger-than-expected US jobs data. Earlier, a surprise bounce in China’s manufacturing sector sent stocks higher across Asia and Europe. Here are the latest moves.

• Dow Jones up 0.91% at 27,292.32
• S&P 500 up 0.79% at 3061.75
• Nasdaq up 0.91% at 8367.41
• UK’s FTSE 100 up 0.52% at 7286.21
• Germany’s Dax up 0.8% at 12,970.11
• France’s CAC up 0.68% at 5768.52
• Italy’s FTSE MiB up 1.03% at 22,926.59

James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, says the ISM survey suggests

the US manufacturing sector is in recession due to weak global growth, trade tensions and a strong dollar. There is little reason to expect an imminent turnaround with more support from the Federal Reserve likely needed.

And here is the second US manufacturing survey, from the Institute for Supply Management. It shows manufacturing shrank at a slower pace last month, but did not improve as much as expected. The headline index rose to 48.3 from 47.8 in September.

More on that Trump tweet. I suspected he might have added several months together.

Heather Long, economics correspondent at the Washington Post, has spoken to the White House.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit says:

Tentative signs of renewed vigour are appearing in the US manufacturing sector, with the survey’s production gauge having now risen for three successive months to suggest that the soft patch bottomed out in July. Growth of new orders hit a six-month high, fuelled in part by a renewed increase in exports, prompting producers to take on more staff, with payroll numbers rising at the quickest pace since May.

The improvement in current conditions was matched by a lifting of business optimism about the year ahead to the highest seen since June. It was also encouraging to see this optimism feed through to an upturn in demand for investment goods, such as plant and machinery, as this hints that firms are moving back into expansion mode, albeit only tentatively so far.

However, while the outlook has improved, further growth is by no means assured. Survey respondents continue to report widespread concerns over issues such as tariffs, the auto sector’s ongoing malaise, a lack of pricing power amid weak demand and uncertainty about the economic and political situation over the coming year. While the survey data are moving in the right direction, the overall picture therefore remained one of only very modest growth and guarded optimism.

The IHS Markit US manufacturing PMI is out. It shows a modest improvement in factory activity, with the headline index rising to 51.3 in October, from 51.1 in September.

On the US jobs numbers, which showed the economy added 128,000 workers in October.

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Rick Osterloh, senior vice president in charge of devices & services at Google, says:

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News flash: The smartwatch maker Fitbit has agreed to be bought by Google for $2.1bn, or $7.35 a share in cash.

You can read the full announcement here.

Neil Birrell, chief investment officer at fund manager Premier Asset Management:

The jobs data was distorted by the General Motors strike, one of the biggest this century, but the number of jobs created was quite a bit higher than expected. This appears to back up the Fed’s comments on Wednesday night about the economy being in decent shape and its shift in policy stance. This is more good news for equites and the dollar, but we may see bond yields higher.

Richard Flynn, UK managing director at Charles Schwab, a bank and stock brokerage firm based in San Francisco, says:

Today’s numbers beat expectations, but the job market has cooled significantly since last month, as slowing global growth and trade war concerns continue to fester. Despite the FOMC’s decision to cut rates a third time this year earlier in the week, US economic activity has failed to pick up meaningfully, which has aided the argument that rate cuts are unlikely to be the elixir for what ails the broader economy.

Separately, larger structural issues – such as falling inflation expectations, an ageing population, and muted productivity—have somewhat diminished the effects of monetary policy.

Without a comprehensive and definitive trade deal with China, we will continue to see bouts of market volatility that could undermine market confidence, impact hiring, and put pressure on capital spending intentions.

Here is some instant reaction to the data.

James Ingram, investment manager at stockbroker MB Capital, says:

With the labour market somewhat beyond full employment, past tight labour markets have shown payroll growth tending to reaccelerate in October (for example in 2007 and 1999). Accordingly, we believe some firms likely pulled forward hiring into October. This may be holiday related.

This is somewhat stronger than our estimates and suggests the underlying economy remains resilient to trade disputes and the pace of job growth remains good. A huge beat on non-farm payrolls and a figure Trump can continue to boast about with his eye on his next term.

Coupled with an inflation figure that continues to be sluggish and below the Fed target of 2% positively shows there isn’t any sign of the tight job market causing a risk of overheating the economy.

The dollar has shrugged off its earlier weakness and risen on the US jobs data – which means the pound has lost ground against the greenback, and is now flat at $1.2945. It is still up 0.19% against the euro at €1.1629.

The US jobs figures have boosted European stocks further.

• UK’s FTSE 100 up 0.46%
• Germany’s Dax up 0.68%
• France’s CAC up 0.59%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB up 0.69%
• Spain’s Ibex up 0.55%

So US employers hired more people than expected last month, despite a strike at General Motors, and hiring in the previous two months was also stronger than expected. September’s rise in jobs was revised up to 180,000.

The October figure includes a strike-driven 41,600 decline in car industry jobs and 20,00 temporary census workers leaving their jobs. About 46,000 workers went on strike at GM factories in Michigan and Kentucky until last Friday, and striking workers who do not receive a pay cheque are counted as unemployed.

The jobless rate edged up to 3.6%. The manufacturing sector lost 36,000 jobs last month, the most since October 2009.

US stock index futures jumped after the data, pointing to a good open on Wall Street this afternoon.

European stock markets are still trading higher ahead of the US jobs numbers, out at 12:30 GMT.

• UK’s FTSE 100 up 0.33%
• Germany’s Dax up 0.42%
• France’s CAC up 0.38%
• Italy’s FTSE Mib up 0.45%

Sterling has held its nerve, despite Nigel Farage’s threat that his Brexit party would fight the ruling Conservatives for every seat if Boris Johnson does not abandon his Brexit deal.

The pound is trading higher against the dollar and the euro, at $1.2963, up 0.15%, and at €1.1626, up 0.18%.

Farage dismissed reports that his party would pull hundreds of candidates to avoid damaging the Tories as “idle speculation”.

As flagged up earlier, today is Alison Rose’s first day as the boss of Royal Bank of Scotland.

She has has pledged to make the climate crisis a priority as she seeks to build a more “open, accessible and inclusive” bank following years of scandal, writes our banking correspondent Kalyeena Makortoff.

In a letter sent to staff on her first day as chief executive, Rose said she would share the details of her new strategy for the bank – still 64% owned by the taxpayer – in the new year, but sought to draw a line under the past as she takes on the top job following the departure of Ross McEwan, who led the bank since 2013.

“At the heart of how I will run the bank is my conviction that if our customers do well, if our economy does well and if our communities do well, then we all succeed together,” Rose wrote.

“Shared success also means playing our part to help tackle the problems that can hold the country back, like the threat from climate change, a lack of financial confidence and barriers to enterprise and growth. These pillars will form part of our strategy.”

Here is our full story on the profit warning from the car dealership Lookers.

Returning to the UK manufacturing PMI, Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, says it its clearly good news against the backdrop of election and Brexit uncertainty. However she reckons the sector is still in recession.

While the manufacturing PMI recovered in October from September’s extremely weak level, it is still consistent with a recession in the manufacturing sector.

Overall, it seems likely that the manufacturing sector has remained a drag on GDP growth at the start of the fourth quarter. And with the other sectors showing little growth, we are expecting the economy to expand by no more than 0.2%-0.3% q/q in the next few quarters.

Admittedly, the monetary policy committee still looks set to stand pat at its meeting next Thursday. But if Brexit is delayed again beyond 31^st January, and the economy remains weak as we expect, then we still think that the Bank of England will cut rates – perhaps by 25 basis points in May 2020.

More on Mike Ashley - who has called Jeremy Corbyn “a liar” and “clueless” in an interview with the Financial Times.

It has emerged that the retail tycoon has spent millions of pounds on flights by helicopter and private jet as his company’s annual profit fell 80%. The Sports Direct owner’s family also received more than £100,000 of hospitality at Newcastle United, Ashley’s football club.

Ashley’s spending was revealed in the annual accounts for Mash Holdings, through which the billionaire owns his businesses.

You can read the full story here:

And Goals Soccer Centres, the five-aside-pitch operator, has been bought by Scottish firm Soccerworld backed by private equity, saving 750 jobs, our retail correspondent Sarah Butler reports.

Goals, which is part-owned by retail tycoon Mike Ashley, also admitted that it may have overstated its profits by as much as £40m as it collapsed into administration and was immediately bought out by Northwind 5s, a new company backed by Soccerworld and Inflexion Private Equity.

Goals’ shares were de-listed from the London stock exchange in September after it uncovered a tax accounting scandal stretching back at least a decade.

Shares in Lookers, one of Britain’s biggest car dealerships, plunged as much as 30% this morning after the company issued its second profit warning in less than four months, and parted company with its chief executive and chief operating officer.

Lookers predicted profit would fall by more than two-thirds this year and announced the closure of 15 branches. It also said Andy Bruce, who had run the company since 2014, and the operations chief Nigel McMinn had agreed to step down immediately.

In the latest corporate news, Whirlpool has been slammed by MPs for using “disgraceful” tactics to “silence” customers who had been victims of fires caused by faulty tumble dryers.

The cross-party Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee (BEIS) said the company’s use of non-disclosure agreements in at least 24 cases was “chilling”.

As many as 800,000 defective Whirlpool tumble dryers could still be in people’s homes, four years after it emerged that they are a fire risk, the committee said.

The pound has given up most of its gains versus the dollar and is trading at $1.2952 now, up 0.07%. Against the euro, it has risen 0.13% to €1.1623.

At 11am GMT, Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, will launch his party’s election campaign at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster. You can read more on our politics live blog:

Sterling rose from around $1.22 at the start of October to over $1.30 last week and notched up its biggest monthly rise (of 5.2%) since 2009 in October, on relief that the UK wasn’t going to crash out of the EU at Halloween. But further moves will depend on how December’s general election pans out.

Two days ago, US investment bank Goldman Sachs advised currency traders to beat a “tactical retreat” from sterling until the outcome of the election on 12 December becomes clear.

Markets are now waiting for the US non-farm payrolls jobs data, out at 12:30 GMT, followed by the US manufacturing PMIs.

Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG, has looked at the main moves today. He expects the Dow Jones to open 55 points higher, at 27,101.

With the jobs report ahead, traders are buckling up for volatility, although the Fed’s decision to hold off could limit the impact of today’s report. Markets are pricing in one more cut in January, yet that is expected to provide the final move in this recent phase of easing.

The latest private business survey for China’s factories was at odds with the gloomy official manufacturing PMI the day before. Mahony explains:

Fears over a continued slowdown in manufacturing have been allayed somewhat with the release of a surprisingly positive Caixin manufacturing PMI survey. With the survey focusing on SMEs, there is a strong chance that these less internationalised firms will lead the recovery ahead of their larger competitors.

US-China trade remains a key concern for traders, with top negotiators from both sides due to take a phone call that could enhance the chance of a phase one trade deal. Tensions remain high between the two-sides, yet the market perspective is that we simply need some form of progress to maintain the bullish bias for stocks.

As for sterling, Mahony says:

The pound is on the rise today, as it continues to highlight market optimism in response to the scheduling of the election in December. A surprise jump in the manufacturing PMI provided the best reading in six-months, as the sector shifted back towards expansion territory.

However, markets should be wary of these gains, as it is likely to be a reflection of the stockpiling that occurs ahead of each Brexit deadline. With the extension being granted, the stockpiling boost evident this month is likely come to the detriment of the November survey.

Corbyn has promised that a Labour government would go after super-rich people who exploit a “rigged system” to benefit themselves at the expense of the many, writes our wealth correspondent Rupert Neate.

The Labour leader named five members of “the elite” he would target if he becomes prime minister: Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports Direct; Crispin Odey, a hedge fund boss who made millions betting against the pound in the run-up to the EU referendum; Jim Ratcliffe, the chief executive of the petrochemicals company Ineos; Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Sun and the Times; and Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, who controls a large central London property empire.

As the election campaign in the UK gets underway, the retail tycoon Mike Ashley has lashed out at Jeremy Corbyn.

The Labour leader accused him of being one of the “bad bosses” in his first speech of the general election campaign.

Ashley, the founder and majority shareholder of Sports Direct who also owns a number of other retail brands, hit back saying Corbyn was “not only a liar but clueless” in an interview with the Financial Times.

Corbyn said Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United football club, “won’t pay his staff properly” and is “running Newcastle United into the ground”.

In response, Ashley said that the system was corrupt —

proven by the recent case of Debenhams and Goals, where yet again the independent shareholders get wiped out. The real problem is politicians such as Corbyn being unwilling to do anything about it.

Asked about Corbyn’s allegations against him, Ashley added:

Corbyn is not only a liar but clueless.

Time to look at the stock markets again. The FTSE 100 index has pushed 0.36% higher and is trading up 26.6 points at 7274.42 – welcome relief after yesterday’s 1.1% decline.

A surprise bounce in a Chinese manufacturing survey has cheered traders, and the UK manufacturing PMI for October has also improved, although it remains in negative territory. The pan-European Stoxx 600 has gained 0.38%.

• Germany’s Dax up 0.37%
• France’s CAC up 0.39%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB up 0.34%

Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey, is gloomy despite the improvement in the headline index.

The manufacturing downturn continued at the start of the final quarter as uncertainties surrounding Brexit, the economic outlook and domestic politics all took their toll.

However, the underlying picture looks even darker than even these disappointing headline numbers suggest, as output and new orders fell despite short-term boosts from stock-building activity in advance of the October 31st Brexit deadline, which included a rise in exports as clients in the EU sought to mitigate supply risk.

He said the ongoing uncertainty is hitting two areas of the manufacturing economy especially hard.

The first is the trend in employment, as job losses resulting from disappointing sales are exacerbated by manufacturers implementing hiring freezes until the outlook clears. The second is the investment goods industry, where output and new orders are falling sharply as clients postpone capital spending plans.

With a further Brexit extension confirmed and the prospect of a December general election, it looks as if the spectre of uncertainty will cast its shadow over manufacturing for the remainder of 2019.

More from the survey.

A number of firms revisited their Brexit preparations during October, leading to higher levels of input purchasing and a build-up of safety stocks. Growth in inventories of finished goods and purchases were at six-month highs, but remained below the survey-record rates reached during the first quarter.

IHS Markit says:

Ongoing uncertainties surrounding Brexit, the economic outlook and the political situation continued to weigh on the UK manufacturing sector during October. Output and new order inflows contracted, leading to further job losses. Firms also ramped up stock-building and purchasing activity in the lead-up to the (postponed) October Brexit departure date.

The UK manufacturing PMI rose for the second month, but remained below the 50 mark that divides contraction from expansion.

British manufacturing has been in decline for the last six months, according to the survey.

The last time it was above the 50 mark that divides expansion from contraction was in April when the PMI recorded 53.1, before falling to 49.4 in May.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal could prevent the UK from striking a trade deal with the US.

Speaking to Nigel Farage on LBC Radio, the US president said the US “can’t make a deal with the UK” under “certain aspects of the deal”, despite Johnson’s claim that it would allow Britain to have an independent trade policy.

However, the announcement of a successor for Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England has been postponed until after the general election. Our economics team reports:

With only days to go until parliament is dissolved, the chancellor Sajid Javid has abandoned plans to announce his choice for Threadneedle Street’s top job during the autumn.

The chancellor is believed to have made the decision to delay because he felt that making a choice at a politically sensitive time might damage the independence of the Bank.

The BBC’s business editor Simon Jack reported last night that he’s been told that Dame Minouche Shafik is the top pick for the next Bank of England governor.

She would be the central bank’s first female governor in its 325-year history. The Egyptian-born British-American economist has already worked at the Bank, as deputy governor, and is currently director of the London School of Economics.

Even though Brexit has been postponed for a second time, carmakers are going ahead with costly production shutdowns designed to avoid Brexit disruption. The latest extension, to 31 January, came too late for carmakers who had already agreed closures with staff and suppliers.

My colleague Jasper Jolly writes:

More than half of the UK’s car manufacturing capacity had some form of shutdown planned to coincide with the 31 October deadline in case of disruption to the supply of parts, a repeat of similar production pauses in April after the original 31 March Brexit date.

Jaguar Land Rover will stop making cars and engines at Halewood, Castle Bromwich, Wolverhampton and Solihull from Monday to Friday, with employees instead assigned to maintenance and training.

BMW’s plant in Oxford is busy ramping up production of its new electric Mini, which the company hopes will be a mass-market battery-powered vehicle. However, workers did not come in for the Thursday night shift and the plant will remain shut from Friday until Monday.

Toyota’s plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, remained closed on Friday, with a return planned on Monday.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, says:

The US dollar has hit a three month low today ahead of today’s jobs numbers, while the pound has continued to make gains after its best one month performance since January 2018 [in points terms], as expectations about a no deal Brexit recede.

The biggest risk now would appear to be the risk of a Labour government, however given current polling that doesn’t look likely right now. Of course that could change, given what happened in 2017, but for now there appear to be a lot of sterling short positions being pared back, as optimism grows that the worst for the pound may well be behind it.

European stock markets have also opened higher.

• Germany’s Dax up 0.4%
• France’s CAC up 0.34%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB up 0.27%
• Spain’s Ibex up 0.3%

And we’re off. The FTSE 100 index has gained more than 30 points, or 0.46%, to 7282.61 in early trading.