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Household energy bills will remain at £2,500 a year on average from April after the Government extended its Energy Price Guarantee.
The scheme had been due to rise to £3,000 from April, lifting household bills by £500.
The guarantee will be held at £2,500 until June, at which point bills are forecast to fall below that level under the Ofgem price cap anyway.
5 things to start your day
1) Hunt boosted on eve of Budget by hopes of lower global inflation | Chancellor to forge ahead with tax rises despite more benign backdrop
2) The five mistakes that Jeremy Hunt should unpick in the Budget | Years of pensions raids and cuts to capital allowances now lie at the heart of Britain’s productivity problems
3) Republicans blame Silicon Valley Bank collapse on its ‘woke’ agenda | Efforts to guarantee the deposits of SVB customers are becoming increasingly politicised
4) Mirror publisher Reach to cut 420 jobs as costs soar | Layoffs come as company attempts to reverse downward trend in share price
5) How Switzerland’s once-feted banking industry became a national embarrassment | Bets on a Credit Suisse default surge as SVB contagion moves through the financial industry
What happened overnight
Asian equities rose sharply on Wednesday, tracking a relief rally on Wall Street and as US inflation data delivered no nasty surprises, reinforcing hopes the Federal Reserve will likely go for a smaller rate hike when it meets next week.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 1.44pc higher, having dropped 1.7pc on Tuesday after SVB’s collapse triggered heavy selling by investors in the last few trading sessions.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index climbed 0.33pc in early trading, while Japan’s Nikkei was mostly flat.
Chinese shares were 0.46pc higher and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 1.4pc.
Wall Street stocks closed higher as jitters over contagion in the banking sector eased and investors absorbed new inflation data showing US price increases cooled in February.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.1pc higher at 32,155.40.
The broad-based S&P climbed 1.7pc to close at 3,920.56, after regional banking stocks recovered some of the ground lost during last week’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished up 2.1pc at 11,428.15 following a late rally.
US government bonds stabilised and reversed much of Monday’s collapse in yields, with traders resuming bets that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates next week.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which is more sensitive to interest rates, recovered to around 4pc after suffering the deepest three-day plunge since the Black Monday in 1987. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed up to 3.69pc.
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