Good afternoon, the markets here in the UK are set to finish up the week pretty mixed after news that the US economy added more jobs than expected in July as employment rose by 943,000.
However, given that these numbers were calculated before the rise of the Delta variant - there are concerns of new restrictions, a factor to watch.
This hiring also helped reduce the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage points to 5.4%, equating to 8.7 million people unemployed as of July.
But these optimistic figures meant gold lost its shine as fears the days of a generous monetary policy could be numbered.
Back down to Earth here in London where Risers include Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) (NYSE:SPCE), Richard Branson's space tourism group, which said it has started selling tickets to space with prices starting at $450,000 per seat.
Rupert Murdoch’s media group News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) the owner of the Wall Street Journal and The Sun was also in the green as it said it had returned to profit in the year to the end of June from a loss the year before.
Other market snapshots include Supermarket chain Morrisons says it has agreed to a revised takeover offer worth £6.7bn, up from £6.3bn, from a private equity consortium led by Fortress Investment Group.
The Halifax says house prices rose again in July after dipping last month, with prices 7.6% higher than at the same time last year - making the average price in the UK worth £261,221.
That’s all from me this week have a great weekend!