Finally, Britain’s stock market has ended the day at a new six-month closing high.

A risk-on mood in the markets, plus a weaker pound, helped the FTSE 100 end the day 33 points higher, at 7,469.

Other European markets also reached their highest levels since last October.

David Madden of CMC Markets says:

Fresh six month highs were achieved on the FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 today as the bullish sentiment continues. The fact that Brexit has been delayed, and the European Central Bank are willing to launch another round of targeted lending later this year has helped investor appetite. US-China trade talks have been moving in the right direction recently, and that has been a factor too.

That may be all for today.....

Our economics editor Larry Elliott isn’t too impressed with today’s record levels of employment.

He argues that it shows UK firms are too reluctant to invest, and would rather hire more staff (often on inadequate wages):

For decades, the critique has remained the same: a big productivity gap with rival countries is the result of low pay, inadequate training, clapped out machinery and an endemic short-termism. High levels of employment are the flipside of that.

Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei has hit back, hard, at claims it is a security risk and should be blacklisted by Western governments.

My colleague Rupert Neate, who is attending a conference in Shenzhen, has the story:

John Suffolk, Huawei’s chief security officer and the UK government’s former chief IT adviser, said US politicians had not produced any evidence to back up claims that Huawei’s forthcoming 5G mobile technology could be hacked by Chinese spies to eavesdrop on sensitive phone calls – or even kill targets by crashing driverless cars.

Suffolk, who was one of the highest paid British civil servants before he left for Huawei in 2011, said America’s allegations were motivated by politics and “certainly not security” concerns.

[America] can’t keep saying [Huawei] has got some dodgy technology. [Edward] Snowden revealed all kind of things going on with American technology,” he said. “No one has revealed anything that we do [is bad].

“They [the US] are belittling national security – national security is important and they shouldn’t belittle it. They should face up to the reality that technology is complicated and should work together to solve the problems that we can.”

Wall Street has opened higher, with the Dow gaining 58 points to 26,448.

The tech-focused Nasdaq has gained 0.5%, suggesting investors are upbeat today.

Larry Fink, the head of asset management giant BlackRock, has predicted that markets could be poised to “melt-up”. Why? Because investors have large cash holdings, and may fear they’re missing out on a rally.

Fink told CNBC:

Despite where the markets are in equities, we have not seen money being put to work.

We have record amounts of money in cash.”

It’s true that most indices are up over 10% this year, so investors on the sidelines may be anxious....

Just in: America’s factory sector stalled in March.

US manufacturing output was unchanged last month, new figures from the Federal Reserve show, a little weaker than the 0.1% rise expected.

Industrial output (a wider measure that also includes energy production) fell by 0.1%, rather than rising 0.2% as expected.

Car assembly rates dropped too, from 11.31 million per year to 10.85m.

It looks like a sign that America’s economy has slowed, perhaps hit by weaker growth overseas (although economists are hoping that activity will pick up later this year).

Boom! Britain’s stock market has hit a six-month high.

The blue-chip index of leading shares has gained 44 points, or 0.6%, to 7481, its highest level since last October.

The rally comes as the pound suddenly stumbles, as my colleague Jess Elgot reports that Brexit talks between the government and the Labour party have stalled.

This has knocked sterling down by 0.4 of a cent, to $1.3056.

That’s good for firms with large overseas earnings. So ad giant WPP (+2.1%) and insurance group Prudential (+2.3%) are among the risers, with financial firms and industrial groups among the gainers.

The chancellor tweets...

Older workers are playing a key role in keeping Britain’s employment rate at a record high.

More than 70% of the 457,000 jobs created in the last year were filled by people aged 50 and over, today’s labour market report shows.

Gerwyn Davies, senior labour market analyst for the HR group CIPD, says firms are casting their net wider to find staff, given the tight labour markets.

Changing demographics is undoubtedly a factor, but another possibility is that employers are being forced to widen their recruitment channels and make work more accessible in response to the tightening labour market.

Some of these groups are also more likely to have received more help and support from policymakers, through interventions such as more generous childcare support, as well as National Living Wage increases.

Back to the unemployment report... and Mike Amesbury MP, Labour’s Shadow Employment Minister has pointed out that Britain’s labour market isn’t working for everyone:

“Behind today’s headline figures, average wages are still less than they were ten years ago and in-work poverty is rising faster than employment.

Many people are trapped in low paid, insecure work and 70% of children in poverty now live in working families.

Labour will introduce a Real Living Wage of at least £10 an hour, ban zero-hours contracts and invest in skills and training to build an economy that works for everyone.”

In other news, the German business climate has weakened again... but conditions might look brighter soon.

That’s according to the monthly survey from Munich-based research group ZEW, which tracks sentiment among investors and analysts.

ZEW’s current conditions index has fallen to just 5.5 points, down from 11.1 in March, in the seventh monthly fall in a row. That’s understandable, as the German economy hasn’t posted any growth since last summer.

But its forward-looking economic sentiment index has picked up, to 3.1 points from -3.6 a month ago. ZEW says that the Brexit postponement helped to raise spirits.

The number of vacancies at UK firms remains close to a record high, with 852,000 positions currently unfilled.

That should help push wages higher, as workers are in demand.

Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) national chairman Mike Cherry says this shortfall is a “headache” for company owners. He blames Brexit, which has deterred EU nationals from seeking work in the UK.

“One in five small UK employers rely on staff from the EU.

The sharp drop in European arrivals is a real concern for many smaller firms, particularly those in sectors such as construction, care and engineering where the contribution of EU team members is so vital. One in three small firms now say lack of access to the right personnel is a major barrier to growth.

Here’s the BBC’s Dharshini David on the jobs report:

Simon Harvey, analyst at Monex Europe, has spotted that UK pay growth slowed in February alone.

Real basic pay (earnings excluding bonuses, adjusted for inflation) only rose by 1.3% in February, down from 1.9% in January.

This monthly pay repost can be volatile (which is why the ONS prefer the three-month reading of 1.5%), but it may show that bosses were reluctant to agree pay rises as a no-deal Brexit loomed.

Tej Parikh, senior economist at the Institute of Directors, reckons Brexit uncertainty may be helping job creation.

The theory is that firms are unwilling to spend heavily on expensive new equipment to boost productivity, so they’ve been hiring new staff instead.

Parikh explains:

“The elongated period of uncertainty has kept businesses in a hiring cycle. Many firms have lacked the confidence to put funding toward training, technology, and new machinery, which has in turn meant firms need to hire more workers to lift output.

Without a pick-up in investment, low productivity will also keep wages from growing further, particularly when considering the higher regulatory costs businesses are facing this tax year.

That implies that job creation could stall if Brexit is finalised, or that productivity will remain weak if the crisis rumbles ever onwards.

And here’s Theresa May’s chief of staff on the unemployment report:

The number of people classed as economic inactive in the UK has hit its lowest level on record, at 20.7% (down from 21.2% a year ago).

That means more people are either working or looking for work.

The long-term picture is that fewer women have been classed as economically inactive over recent decades, narrowing the gap with men.

Over the last five years, the number of women looking after the family or home has dropped by 271,000 while the number taking early retirement is down 242,000).

In another healthy sign, Britain’s employment rate has hit a new joint record high, at 76.1%.

That’s up from 75.4% a year ago, and hasn’t been higher since current records began in 1971.

The employment rate for men is 80.5%, the highest since February 1991.

For women, the employment rate has risen to 71.8%, a joint-record high.

Newsflash: Sterling implied volatility (a measure of whether investors are betting on the pound surging or slumping) has hit its lowest level in 16 months.

That shows the City isn’t expecting fresh Brexit drama soon, now that Article 50 has been extended until October.

Shares in Galliford Try plunged by more than a fifth when markets opened this morning after the housbuilder and construction firm spooked investors with a profit warning.

The company said it would shrink its construction business and warned full year profits would be £30m-£40m lower than City analysts were expecting, party because of cost overruns on some projects, including the troubled Queensferry Crossing in Scotland.

Galliford Try had already increased its provision on the Aberdeen by-pass project, after it was left to pick up the pieces when Carillion - its former partner on the project - collapsed.

After initially falling more than 20%, shares are now down 18% at 596p, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 250.

If the City predictions are correct, the UK’s jobless rate will remain at its lowest level since Harold Wilson was prime minister in 1975.