Thanks for joining me. Thames Water suffered a 54pc decline in its pre-tax profits  to £246.4m as its debts mounted.

The utility company’s results come days after it emerged that Thames Water’s parent company was warned by its auditors that it could run out of money by next April if its shareholders don’t inject more equity into the utility business. 

5 things to start your day 

1) Qatar slashes stake in Barclays amid turnaround push at the bank | Lender’s second largest shareholder plans to raise £510m through the sale of shares

2) Weak Christmas sales risk high street ‘casualties’ | Black Friday deals have failed to reinvigorate sluggish spending

3) Sellafield nuclear site under ‘robust scrutiny’ over cybersecurity fears | Regulator denies claims the site suffered a security breach at the hands of hackers

4) Lidl forced to rename bread in ‘fake’ sourdough row | Retailer’s use of additional yeast leads campaigners to label crusty loaf ‘sourfaux’

5) Ben Marlow: Spotify is unwrapping the Christmas present of nightmares | The streaming giant’s overambition is finally crashing back down to Earth

What happened overnight 

Asian stocks slipped and Hong Kong’s unloved Hang Seng index slumped to a one-year low as investors tempered expectations for cuts to interest rates and waited on US jobs data.

The Australian dollar fell 0.6pc after the central bank left interest rates on hold, as expected, and emphasised that the future direction rates would depend on data.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1pc in late afternoon trade, with Hong Kong doing most of the dragging with a 1.6pc fall.

The Hang Seng is down more than 17pc for the year so far, while world stocks are up almost 15pc, as investors have streamed out of Chinese assets while the economy stumbles.

Japan’s Nikkei was 1.4pc lower at three-week trough, mostly thanks to falling chipmaking stocks. 

Gold hung on above $2,000 after a wild session on Monday, when it hit a record high in Asia before recoiling sharply lower.

In the United States, the S&P 500 dropped 0.5pc to 4,569.78, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading American companies dropped 0.1pc to 36,204.44. The Nasdaq Composite index, which contains a lot of technology businesses, dropped 0.8pc to 14,185.49.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds, rose to 4.25pc from 4.21pc on Friday.