Global stocks slipped on Thursday, as investors assessed contradictory economic data emerging from the world’s biggest economy and reacted to a gloomy set of forecasts for the UK.
Wall Street’s S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent in early trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 1.4 per cent. London’s FTSE was 0.6 per cent lower as UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a £55bn “consolidation” of the country’s finances and acknowledged the economy was in recession.
The regional Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.9 per cent and Germany’s Dax dipped 0.4 per cent, erasing earlier gains.
UK output will return to pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility has said, more than two years later than the fiscal watchdog estimated in March. Unemployment will rise by 505,000 from 3.5 per cent to peak at 4.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2024.
Sterling was trading 0.9 per cent lower against the dollar…
