Seven days in the Square Mile

Markets in the US and Europe rallied on the outcome of the US midterm elections, with attention now switching to this month’s G20 meeting, in which President Trump is scheduled to discuss trade tensions with China’s President Xi. The latter repeated his commitment to free trade and globalisation. It emerged that China has granted Ivanka Trump initial approval for 16 new trademarks for items including shoes, sunglasses – and voting machines. Renewed US sanctions against Iran took effect: the country’s energy, shipping and banking sectors are likely to be hard hit. In Britain, the pound jumped on rumours that the City is close to a Brexit deal. But the UK services sector suffered its worst month since March, as business optimism faded to its lowest level since the aftermath of the referendum. Accountants Price Bailey reported that a record number (1,123) of UK restaurants have gone bust this year, with the brunt of the pain felt by middle-market chains. Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, reported that it had made a $928m share buyback in August – the first since 2012, prompting speculation that Buffett can’t find anything else worth buying. The UK competition authorities castigated the price comparison site Compare the Market for preventing home insurers from advertising lower prices on other sites. An ex-rothschild banker, Nigel Higgins, was appointed chairman of Barclays.