On Monday, the UK unemployment rate held steady at 4.7% in the three months to June. While the headline figure suggests stability, underlying data points to a gradual softening in the labour market, with payrolls falling for six consecutive months and job vacancies continuing to decline.

Some encouraging PMI data emerged from Asia this week. In Japan, services sector activity picked up pace in July, with the Services PMI rising to 53.6 from 51.7 in June, which marks the strongest expansion since February.

It has been a week of little economic data for markets to process. Euro area inflation currently stands at 2% – matching the ECB’s target.

Market performance has been mixed this week as earnings season gets underway and President Donald Trump’s 1 August trade deadline approaches.

Market performance thus far this week has been fairly muted with investors waiting in anticipation to digest a slew of economic data.

Global equities began the week on a cautious footing, with markets retreating modestly on Monday amid renewed trade tensions.

Market attention was beginning to shift toward the 9th of July deadline for President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs to take effect, amid continued mixed signals from the White House.

A relatively quiet week on the economic calendar had investors looking mainly to what was coming out of the US to make their next moves. On Monday, President Trump announced a “complete and total ceasefire” between Israel and Iran following 12 days of conflict, a statement later confirmed by the Israeli Prime Minister.

Global equity markets have had a quiet start to the week as investors await a key U.S. inflation reading due later today.

Eurozone inflation slowed to 1.9% in May, down from 2.2% in April, marking the first time since September 2023 that price growth has dipped below the European Central Bank’s 2% target. Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, also declined to 2.4%, compared to 2.7% the month before.