The week began with a better-than-expected Nationwide survey showing average UK house prices rose 1.5% in June compared with the same month last year to stand at a 12-month high of £266,000.

This was still 3% short of the summer 2022 peak but the direction of travel is clearly upward, and with the Labour party promising to deliver 300,000 new homes each year of the new parliament, assuming they are elected, there was plenty of positivity among the housebuilding stocks.

US manufacturing survey data was generally a tad disappointing, but the ISM June new orders figure of 49.3 was above forecasts and a big improvement on May’s 45.4 reading while the Federal Reserve will have been pleased to see the both the prices index and the employment index fall.

Less pleasing were obvious signs of a slowdown in demand for machinery, where respondents reported a falling backlog of sales resulting in staff being put on furlough, and customers cutting orders at short notice for transport equipment ‘causing a ripple effect among lower-tier suppliers’ according to the survey.

At the time Shares went to press, investors were still awaiting the US May JOLTS survey and the June ADP non-farm employment index, both of which are keenly watched.

However, with the US celebrating a market holiday on Thursday and the UK going to the polls, all eyes are on Friday’s events.

Unless the polls are way wide of the mark, the Labour party is expected to win a clear majority, which unlike in previous years seems to be well received by the business community and the investment world.

Friday also sees the release of US non-farm payrolls, which are seen retracing from May’s 272,000 to more like 190,000 in June, providing more evidence of a cooling US economy.

Next week’s economic calendar is fairly light with the focus on UK housing and retail sales and US consumer and producer prices.

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