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Thursday, August 8, 2019

Surprise rise in Chinese exports boosts shares in Europe and Asia – business live

* Gold still hovers near $1,500 an ounce despite stock market recovery * Greek unemployment drops to 8-year low 10.16am BST There’s some good news out of Athens: the jobless rate dropped to 17.2% in May, from 17.4% (which was revised down) in April, according to official data. This was the lowest unemployment rate since May 2011. Youth unemployment also declined significantly. The number of unemployed people was 815,166, with younger people aged up to 24 still the worst affected, according to seasonally adjusted data. However, among younger people aged 15 to 24, the jobless rate fell to 33.8% from 38.9%. 9.47am BST Analysts are cautious about the recovery in global shares. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, says: There remains little prospect of a swift resolution to the current impasse between the US and China, as the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan above the 7.00 level for the first time since 2008. This means that for this rebound to gain further momentum we would need to see evidence of a softening of the rhetoric around trade, and a willingness on the part of both parties to dial back their current positions. Continue reading...


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