Thanks for joining me. A long-awaited decision has been made on the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea, with UK regulators giving the green light for drilling.

Norwegian state energy company Equinor has received the go-ahead to progress with development at the site, which is expected to produce 300m barrels of oil from the field in its lifetime.

5 things to start your day 

1) Tories ‘don’t deserve to win the next election’, says Thatcher donor Lord Harris | Conservative peer criticises Sunak Government for its lack of clear vision

2) JPMorgan settles Epstein Virgin Islands case for $75m | Wall Street bank also strikes deal with Jes Staley, an ex-employee and the former Barclays chief

3) Meta pays £149m to ditch London office as staff work from home | It comes as the social media giant rolls out a new hybrid working policy for employees

4) Amazon uses ‘coercive tactics’ to protect its dominance, claims Biden tsar | It’s the latest in a flurry of competition cases launched by FTC against Big Tech

5) Financial Times considers scrapping print newspaper as weekday newsstand sales drop below 5,000 | City broadsheet is weighing the viability of its print edition in various locations

What happened overnight 

Asian stocks slumped following Wall Street lower as investors contemplate a protracted period of higher interest rates. The dollar held onto gains from its recent rally.

Benchmarks across the region declined, with stocks in Australia and South Korea all falling.

Tokyo stocks reversed earlier losses and ended higher, as Asian shares headed north while investors looked for new clues.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.2pc, or 56.85 points, to 32,371.90, while the broader Topix index rose 0.3pc, or 7.59 points, to 2,379.53.

US stocks slumped to their lowest level since June on Tuesday after a consumer confidence index fell by more than expected, sparking fears of recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1pc and the Nasdaq 100 dropped by 1.7pc. 

The S&P 500 Index fell by 1.6pc, driven by a tech sell off. The S&P 500 Information Technology Index has dropped by more than a tenth since its summer peak.

This followed a drop in the Conference Board’s US consumer confidence index from 108.7 in August to 103 in September, well below the consensus forecast of 105.5.

The VIX – which tracks markets’ expectations for share price volatility – jumped by nearly 7pc to hit its highest level since late May.