Persimmon on track for full-year targets, M&S posts better-than-expected first half

Stocks to watch

Housebuilder Persimmon said it is on track to hit full-year targets for housing completions this year after an in-line third-quarter performance, with demand helped by improvements in customer sentiment as interest rates begin to reduce and affordability improves. The company delivered 1,416 homes in the third quarter, slightly down from 1,439 last year, with a 3% increase in private homes to 1,267 outweighed by a 27% drop in partnership homes to 149. The current forward sales position stood at £2.02bn across 8,575 homes by 3 November, up from £1.73bn at the same point and 8,182 last year.

Marks & Spencer reported better-than-expected first-half profits on Wednesday as it said the food and clothing segments have now delivered market share growth for four consecutive years.Chief executive Stuart Machin said: "Executing our strategy to 'Reshape M&S for Growth' has again delivered an increase in customers, sales value and volume, market share, profit and returns. Both food and clothing have now delivered market share growth for four consecutive years.

Newspaper round-up

Cross-channel train operator Eurostar has been criticised by the advertising watchdog for exaggerating the number of £39 seats on sale. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that Eurostar ads across Instagram and Facebook for £39 tickets from London to Amsterdam and Brussels were misleading, the second time it has censured its ads this year. – Guardian

UK growth would be halved in the event Donald Trump wins the US presidential race and imposes the swingeing new tariffs he has threatened, a leading thinktank has warned. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the protectionist measures planned by the Republican challenger for the White House would result in weaker activity, rising inflation and higher interest rates from the Bank of England. – Guardian

Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax raid on farmers will put food security at risk and leave Britain more reliant on foreign imports, suppliers have warned. Senior business leaders said the Chancellor’s decision to impose inheritance tax on farming assets worth more than £1m threatened to erode domestic food production. – Telegraph

Asda is ordering staff back to the office at least three days a week, while also cutting jobs in an attempt to halt the supermarket’s decline. The retail giant announced the change in an internal email on Tuesday, which will apply to more than 5,000 head office workers across three different locations in Leeds and Leicester. It comes just weeks after Mohsin Issa stepped down from running the business, with former M&S chief executive Lord Rose taking the helm as his interim replacement. – Telegraph

Specialist engineers working on Britain’s newest nuclear power station have gone on strike, saying they have not had a pay rise in four years and that cheap foreign labour is being used to undercut British workers. The cabling and pipework engineers, represented by the professional trade union Prospect, work on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station being built in Somerset by EDF, as well as the Sizewell C project planned for Suffolk. – The Times

US close

Traders were in a bullish mood despite ongoing uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the US presidential elections, with all three Wall Street benchmark indices rising by 1% or more.

The Dow rose 1.02% to 42,221.88, with 25 of its 30 constituents finishing in positive territory, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.23% to 5,782.76 and the Nasdaq jumped 1.43% to 18,439.17.

The race between former president Donald Trump and vice president Kamala Harris still remains too close to call, according to the final polling stats. And even after voting closes there is unlikely to be a clear winner for some time, with pundits warning that the final outcome may not be certain for many days due to individual states' own ballot-counting processes.

10-year US Treasury yields were relatively stable, down just 0.4 basis points on the day at 4.285%, while the US dollar index fell 0.5% to 103.42 – its lowest since 15 October.

While the focus was firmly on the election, economic data was still making headlines. The US trade deficit rose to its highest in 30 months in September as expected, jumping 19.2% to $84.4bn as businesses rushed to import goods before a planned – albeit later suspended – port strike in early October.