Markets rally as US jobs report beats forecasts; UK house prices drop again – as it happened

223,000 new jobs created in US last month, more than expected, while slowing wage growth cheers Wall Street

• Average UK house price falls for fourth month in a row, says Halifax

While UK house prices are falling, European stock markets are on track for their best week since early November.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index has gained around 3.5% so far this year, the biggest weekly gain in almost two months.

After a tumultuous 2022, which was a miserable year for traditional fixed income and equity investors, there has been some hope coming into 2023 that the outlook for the year ahead may be materially more favourable. During the past few weeks there have been signs that the growth outlook remains relatively healthy. Business and consumer confidence surveys have stabilised, labour market data have remained robust and recession fears seem to have been pushed back, for a time at the very least.

Chinese re-opening is also seen as a growth positive, even if the surge in Covid since the end of restrictions last month means that the next several weeks may be difficult for policymakers in Beijing. Meanwhile, mild winter weather in Europe has seen gas prices drop to levels last seen prior to the start of the Ukraine war and with oil prices also dropping, this has helped inflation data to surprise to the downside.