FTSE 100 Live: Inflation falls to 3.6 per cent, WH Smith CEO quits

Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog.

Global markets downturn continued on Tuesday, with Europe left swimming in the red.

The FTSE 100 closed the day down 1.27 per cent at 9,552 as the boss of Google gave the latest warning on the soaring valuation of tech stocks.

Sundar Pichai, the head of Google’s parent firm Alphabet, told the BBC, “No company is going to be immune, including us”, if the AI bubble bursts.

Pichai said: “We can look back at the internet right now. There was clearly a lot of excess investment, but none of us would question whether the internet was profound”.

His remarks came as fresh data from the Bank of America gave another damning assessment of UK outflows.

Fund managers are ditching UK stocks at the fastest pace since Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng panicked markets with the 2022 mini-budget, the new report suggested.

Markets’ panic heightened last week with the latest Budget debacle, including a dramatic U-turn over income tax.

Nigel Green, chief executive of global financial advisory deVere Group, said the move risked a “credibility shock” and drew comparison with the market reaction following the 2022 mini-budget.

One bit of reprieve on the road to 26 November could be handed today as we receive the latest inflation data.

City analysts predicted slightly lower levels of core inflation, which excludes volatile measures such as food and energy, while some economists said services inflation could ease. 

We’ll be bringing you the news as we get it.

Here are a few of our top stories from yesterday:

• Brain drain latest: Brits quitting UK three times faster than thought
• Banks back in Reeves’ tax targets amid Budget whiplash
• COP out: Big businesses swerve climate conference
• Investors flee UK stocks as Budget jitters echo Liz Truss fiasco
• Santander: UK businesses shift away from China as tensions flare