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UK mortgage approvals surged to 65,647 in September, marking the highest monthly total since August 2022, according to data released by the Bank of England on Tuesday.

This uptick – an increase of 689 compared with August – is the highest level since August 2022 when former prime minister Liz Truss's mini-budget sent markets into a tailspin and mortgage rates to record highs.

The latest Money and Credit statistics reveal that net mortgage approvals for house purchases reached 65,647 last month, reflecting a renewed confidence in the housing market. In addition, approvals for remortgaging with different lenders increased by 3,100, bringing the total to 30,800.

Read more from Yahoo Finance UK

Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at online trading platform IG, said:

Job openings fell more than expected in September. The data comes as investors closely watch for signs of further cooling in the labor market ahead of the Federal Reserve's next interest rate decision on Nov. 7.

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday showed that there were 7.44 million jobs open at the end of September, a decrease from the 7.86 million seen in August and the lowest level of job openings since January 2021.

August's figure was revised lower from the 8.04 million open jobs initially reported. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the report to show 8 million openings in September.

EY chief economist Gregory Daco told Yahoo Finance the release shows there "is much less tightness" in the labor market and there "continues to be less tightness."

But the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed 5.55 million hires were made during the month, up from 5.43 million seen in August, while the hiring rate rose slightly to 3.5% in September, up from 3.4% in August.

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Shares in BP (BP.L) fell on Tuesday morning, after the oil major posted its weakest quarterly profit in nearly four years.

BP posted a nearly 30% slump in underlying replacement cost profit to $2.3bn (£1.8bn) in the third quarter. Underlying replacement cost profit is the metric that BP uses as its version of net income.

The energy company had reported underlying replacement cost profit of $2.8bn in the second quarter and $3.3bn last year.

This latest net income figure was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when BP posted an underlying replacement cost profit of $115m.

Read more from Yahoo Finance UK

The government is reportedly set to increase the minimum wage in Wednesday's budget, meaning more than a million people are in line for a pay rise.

The Times reported chancellor Rachel Reeves will increase the minimum wage by a further 6%. It comes after the minimum wage rose by more than 9% per year in 2023 and 2024 under the previous Tory government.

Here, Yahoo News UK explains what the minimum wage is and how it could change under the reported plans.

Read more from Yahoo News

We all know what happened the pound only two years ago in the disastrous mini-budget rolled out by Liz Truss. So it's. no wonder it's in focus going into this one. Pedro Goncalves writes:

Sterling was muted against the dollar on Tuesday, trading just 0.03% higher at $1.2972 at the time of writing, reflecting a cautious market sentiment ahead of the autumn budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil plans to raise taxes and boost public spending, a strategy hinted at by Sir Keir Starmer during his speech in Birmingham on Monday. The prime minister warned about the necessity of making "tough decisions" to raise taxes, adding that this approach was crucial to avoid austerity measures and to help rebuild public services.

ING strategist Francesco Pesole said there was no political risk premium priced into the pound right now, while speculators are sitting on a fairly substantial bullish position in sterling futures, which could quickly get unwound if there is any disappointment stemming from the budget.

"Sterling continues to look vulnerable ahead of tomorrow’s budget event and next week’s US election, and risks remain skewed to a move to $1.2800-1.2850," he said.

Investors will be monitoring the forthcoming spending plans, given their potential impact on the Bank of England's (BoE) interest rate trajectory. A recent poll conducted by Reuters suggested that the BoE is poised to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.75% in its upcoming meeting on November 7.

This would represent the central bank's second interest rate reduction of the year, following its decision to maintain the key borrowing rate at 5% during its last policy meeting in September.

Read more from Yahoo Finance UK

Here's Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto's take on the upcoming budget and bonds:

HSBC (HSBC) stock was more than 3.8% higher in US pre-market on Tuesday, and 3.3% higher in London (HSBA.L) as markets opened after an earnings report which showed profits had jumped by nearly 10%.

The report follows an announcement last week of a wide-scale restructuring which aims to make the bank "simpler and faster".

Pre-tax profit hit $8.5bn (£6.6 billion) between July and September, nearly a tenth more than the $7.7bn (£5.9 bn) made over the same period last year. Analysts expected profit of $7.6bn (£5.9bn) for the third quarter.

Major stock indices in Asia rose on Tuesday, following the US higher as traders look to the rest of the world for signals. The uncertainty that has plagued markets over the US election will be over soon, as November 5 looms and policy goals in one of the world's growth engines will become clearer.

Meanwhile, tech earnings this week will bring into relief the health of another part of the global economy.

The Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong ticked up 0.3% in the session, while Japan's Nikkei (^N225) rose 0.8%.

From our US team:

US stocks climbed on Monday to kick off a pivotal week packed with Big Tech earnings, an inflation update, and a crucial monthly jobs report.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) jumped nearly 0.3%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose by the same amount. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up more than 250 points, or nearly 0.7%, leading the gains.

The moves came at the start of a hugely consequential week in markets, with five of the "Magnificent Seven" megacaps due to release earnings this week.

Investors are looking to Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta (META) results to help boost the S&P 500 to new heights too. But questions remain as to whether Big Tech's investments in AI are paying off in profits. The reports are the highlight in a very busy week of results, with 169 of the S&P 500's members expected to release updates.

Hello from London. It's the eve of the budget so we'll be nice and busy reading the tea leaves about what might be announced. The government is trailing £1.5bn investment for the NHS, but we will wait for details about how that will be paid for.

Stocks were on the front foot yesterday and FTSE 100 (^FTSE) futures are also pointing to a positive open.

Let's get to it.