Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) Asian stocks extended a rally in global equities as jobs data backed the view that the US economy is headed for a soft landing. The yen gained as the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged.

(2) The Bank of England has given Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves a £4 billion ($5.3 billion) lifeline to help ease spending pressures ahead of what she has said will be a tough first budget.

(3) The UK’s Labour government is considering raising wealth taxes. Small businesses and farmers fear liquidation if relief is cut.

(4) French Prime Minister Michel Barnier met with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris late on Thursday to propose a new government after two weeks of tense consultations with rival political groups.

(5) UK government borrowing came in higher than forecast in the first five months of the fiscal year, keeping Chancellor Rachel Reeves under pressure to raise taxes to balance the books in her budget next month.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) Asian stocks extended a rally in global equities as jobs data backed the view that the US economy is headed for a soft landing. The yen gained as the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged.

(2) The Bank of England has given Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves a £4 billion ($5.3 billion) lifeline to help ease spending pressures ahead of what she has said will be a tough first budget.

(3) The UK’s Labour government is considering raising wealth taxes. Small businesses and farmers fear liquidation if relief is cut.

(4) French Prime Minister Michel Barnier met with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris late on Thursday to propose a new government after two weeks of tense consultations with rival political groups.

(5) The German government has started an internal probe into its Commerzbank AG share sale after the transaction allowed UniCredit to swoop in and take a major stake in the lender.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell led his colleagues to an outsize interest-rate cut designed to preserve the strength of the US economy as risks to the labor market mount, marking an end to their single-minded focus on quashing inflation.

(2) Traders ramped up their bets on the pace of future US interest-rate cuts after the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark by half a point and signalled more cuts coming this year.

(3) The Bank of England is likely to decide against cutting interest rates for a second straight meeting, maintaining a patient approach to reversing the most aggressive policy tightening in decades.

(4) Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared what he called a “new phase” in the war with regional Islamist groups and said troops would be diverted to the Lebanese border, an indication that long-held fears of a wider conflict may soon be realized.

(5) The City of London thinks the UK could attract as much as £7.7 billion ($10.2 billion) more investment by 2030 if it did a better job of attracting foreign sovereign wealth.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.