Yahoo Finance

That's all from me. Head over to our US site for more market moving news.

Some analysis here from Axel Rudolph, senior Technical Analyst at online trading platform IG:

Here they are, courtesy of LiveSquawk:

As you can see here, it's a small miss overall, with higher than estimated prices, fewer new orders and an increase in employment.

The new orders figure is the lowest since May 2023.

The government's latest renewables auction has spawned plans for nine new offshore wind farms to power the market, PA reported.

Plans include what will be Europe’s largest and second largest wind farm projects – Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 off the Yorkshire coast.

The auction process was brought in in 2015 to ensure renewable energy projects get funded. Through the Contracts for Difference scheme, developers bid to secure a guaranteed rate for every megawatt hour of energy their project produces. If the price of energy then dips, subsidies kick in to top up payments.

Yahoo Finance UK reporter Vicky McKeever writes:

Consumer card spending rebounded in August, after falling for two months in a row, as the late summer heatwave helped lift spirits.

Barclays said consumer spending on its debit and credit cards rose 1% year-on-year in August, having dipped 0.3% in July and 0.6% in June.

Spending on groceries was up 1.9%, representing its biggest increase since March. The bank said that this was fuelled by a surge in shopping at specialist food and drink stores, such as butchers and delicatessens, which saw spending up 5.1% with the arrival of picnic and barbecue weather.

Garden centres also benefitted from the late summer sunshine, with spending up 8% in August, as warmer weather encouraged Brits to invest more money in their outdoor spaces.

Even as shoppers continued to try to make cutbacks, nearly half of consumers surveyed said that they continued to spend money on small luxuries with sweet treats found to be the most popular type of pick-me-up.

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Shares in Intel were just below the flatline after surging over 9% in the previous session after Reuters reported that the company is set to propose cost reduction measures.

The plan, which is expected to be presented in mid-September 2024, includes selling businesses such as the programmable chip unit Altera to reduce overall costs. The proposal does not yet include plans to split Intel and sell off its contract manufacturing operation, or foundry, to a buyer such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSM), according to Reuters.

To assist with the strategic review, Intel has hired financial advisors from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

This move is part of an effort to rejuvenate the chipmaker's financial performance. Intel has faced challenges as it seeks to regain its footing in the AI chip market, currently dominated by Nvidia.

Its market capitalisation has fallen below $100bn following its second-quarter earnings report.

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Oil prices are wavering today as traders fret over the economic outlook in China and supply disruptions in Libya.

Currently around 1.5% lower having started the session on the up, macro concerns have been on investors' minds.

There have been signs that China's growth is in doubt as the property crisis continues to reverberate.

Meanwhile, Libya's state oil firm declared force majeure at the El-Feel field. An escalating power struggle had already halved the nation’s output.

Shares in the EV maker were slightly lower ahead of the US opening bell despite reporting surging sales in China.

Tesla’s August sales in China saw a 37% jump from July, hitting over 63,000 cars, thanks mainly to a boost in smaller cities. Deliveries of its China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles rose 17% from July.

However, its performance lags major Chinese rivals by a wide margin. BYD, the world's biggest EV maker, said its China passenger vehicle sales surged 35% in August from a year earlier to a record monthly high of 370,854. Other local EV competitors including Leapmotor and Li Auto also reported higher sales, according to Reuters.

Preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association estimated that the total sales of electric passenger cars in China last month rose 32% from a year earlier to about 1.05 million units, an 11% increase from July.

Latest ONS data shows that:

• The provisional combined number of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving a change in majority share ownership was 385 during Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2024; this was 78 fewer than during Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2024 (463).

• There were an estimated total 148 domestic and cross-border acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership during April 2024, before falling slightly to 144 in May and declining further to 93 in June 2024.

• The value of inward M&A (foreign companies acquiring UK companies) in Quarter 2 2024 was £5bn, £0.6bn lower than the previous quarter (£5.6bn).

Pedro Goncalves writes:

The artificial intelligence (AI) company is the number one trending ticker in pre-market trading after analysts said it could reach to a $10tn valuation.

Beth Kindig, the lead tech analyst at I/O Fund, is forecasting strong growth and "fireworks" for the stock after its Blackwell advanced chip launch.

Kindig predicted that Nvidia's growth trajectory should become more apparent once Wall Street analysts upwardly revise fiscal estimates for the following year. That should be a "big moment" for Nvidia, followed by the release of shipping volume figures for Blackwell in 2025.

“That’s going to be fireworks, is how I would put it. Absolute, ultimate fireworks for Blackwell will come in first-quarter, with that second-quarter guide,” Kindig said. “Early next year will be fireworks again for Nvidia, and we will be on track for that $10tn.”

These new chips are nearly double the size of their predecessors and pack 2.6 times more transistors, which has led to significant manufacturing challenges and impacted profit margins.

Here's Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets, with his take:

Big news for aviation markets this morning as Cathay Pacific becomes the latest carrier to have run into technical issues with its planes.

A problem with its Rolls-Royce produced engines has meant 24 flights have been cancelled globally. Cathay said it was a "precautionary measure".

Rolls-Royce stock price is on its way to recovery following a dip yesterday as the news broke.

Asian markets made small moves on Tuesday following a more reactive start to September on Monday.

The Nikkei 225 (^N225) closed the session almost flat, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong was about 0.3% lower.

Major indexes are looking to the US jobs report later in the week for clues on the Federal Reserve's rate cutting cycle. Cheaper debt will, in theory, give global markets a boost.

US markets were closed on Monday for Labor Day, so not much to report there. What we can show you is how futures markets are pricing the major indexes:

Looks like stocks are primed for a relatively muted open.

Hello from London. Its Tuesday. It's still relatively quiet...

This morning we have the British Retail Consortium's retail sales monitor alongside some trouble at airline Cathay Pacific (more on that to come in the blog).

Let's get to it.