House prices unexpectedly rise amid seller caution Business

Thanks for joining me. House prices rose in October, breaking a cycle of six consecutive monthly falls, according to mortgage lender Halifax.

It said homes were worth 1.1pc more than in September, raising the average price of a UK property by around £3,000 to  £281,974.

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1) Britain unable to process up to half of North Sea oil from new wells, campaigners warn | Lack of refineries suited to processing heavy crude oil means exports are unavoidable

2) Why Sunak is gambling his legacy on overhauling pensions in the King’s Speech | Despite the risks the Tories are betting on the appeal of reforms ahead of an election

3) Rishi Sunak risks walking headlong into the next tech bubble | Our first LinkedIn PM should heed the warnings of a very recent history

4) EV uptake stalls after Sunak pushes back net zero deadlines | New figures pile pressure on the Government to unveil incentives to boost sales

5) Hunt plots overhaul of pensions tax to boost investment | Easier access to fund surpluses could provide an immediate investment boost

What happened overnight 

WeWork, the SoftBank-backed start-up, has filed for bankruptcy. 

The firm reported liabilities of up to $50bn, according to a bankruptcy filing in a New Jersey court. The filing gives WeWork some legal protection from creditors as it negotiates more favourable leases with landlords. 

WeWork shares have fallen about 98.5pc so far this year and on Monday night were trading at just $0.84, down from $88.80 in February. 

Meanwhile, shares mostly fell in Asia after a mixed close on Wall Street, where wild recent moves calmed a bit at the beginning of a quiet week for data releases.

Benchmarks dropped more than 1pc in Hong Kong and Tokyo. South Korea’s Kospi gave up 2.7pc of its big gains from a day earlier.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.3pc to 32,271.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.4pc to 17,710.68. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.1pc to 3,055.74.

Stocks markets in America failed to gain much traction on Monday as bond yields rose. 

The Dow Jones closed up a mere 0.1pc at 32909.6, while the S&P 500 rose 0.18pc to end at 4,365.98. The Nasdaq rose 0.3pc to finish at 13,518.78.