Thanks for listening. We’re going to start today with some data on the wage gap between the middle class and the lower classes, which has narrowed to an all-time low.
According to the Resolution Foundation, the increase in the minimum wage means that the hourly earnings of minimum and median-wage workers have fallen by the most since at least the mid-1970s.
5 things to do to start your day
1) Tech boss ‘felt like he was bribed’ to move company from UK to China | Former chief executive sues chipmaker for £200m, claims he was fired for whistleblowing
2) Hargreaves Lansdown takeover bid not fair to all investors, chairman warns | Concerns over deal price and impact on London Stock Exchange
3) James Bond tourist attraction ignores London market | A tourism developer looking to create an attraction beneath a tube station is hoping to float on the Euronext stock exchange at a valuation of £130m
Four) Sharp rise in minimum wage narrows gap between low-income and middle-class | Hourly wage gap falls to lowest level since 1970s, Resolution Foundation reveals
Five) Ozempic Face, a supplement that combats the side effects of rapid weight loss | Nestle to launch hair growth and collagen products
What happened overnight
U.S. stock indexes remained mixed as shares in Wall Street giant Nvidia fell again, but Asian shares rose.
Japan’s stock benchmark Nikkei rose 0.5% to 39,001.39 after data released by the Bank of Japan on Tuesday showed the services producer price index rose 2.5% in May from a year earlier, slowing from a 2.7% increase in April.
The Japanese yen remains in focus, with the U.S. dollar/Japanese yen exchange rate still hovering near its lowest in nearly 34 years. In morning trading on Tuesday, the yen rose to 159.37 yen to the dollar. It closed at 159.59 yen to the dollar on Monday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.5% to 18,121.78, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% to 2,954.51.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9% to 7,799.20. In South Korea, the KOSPI rose 0.5% to 2,777.69.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.3%, while Bangkok’s SET rose 0.1%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 of the largest U.S. companies, hit its highest level in a month, while the Nasdaq fell more than 1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, to 39,411.21, the S&P 500 lost 0.3%, to 5,447.87 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1% to 17,496.82.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.23% from Friday’s close of 4.257%.