Being a working mum involves making a lot of compromises. If you want a child, you’re more than likely going to have to compromise on pay. You’re also probably going to have put career progression on the back burner — for several years at least. If your employer is inflexible, you may have to change jobs or even quit the workforce entirely.

Mothers are expected to work like they don’t have kids, and parent like they don’t have jobs. To navigate this impossible situation, many take on work with as much flexibility as possible. But research suggests these contracts often have a downside — unpredictable, unreliable hours.

A survey commissioned by HR magazine found that working mothers are disproportionately impacted by unpredictable hours. Of those polled, 71% of women reported that unpredictable work would affect family life 'a lot', compared to half of the men surveyed. Some 66% of those in unpredictable employment said their job caused them stress, while 59% said they had experienced burnout.

Unpredictable work comes in various forms, including self-employment. On the surface, working for yourself seems empowering — but research suggests many women are driven to leave traditional employment out of necessity.

Not knowing when you’ll be working, and exactly how much you will earn, can lead to chronic stress, anxiety and depression.

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Inflation has below the Bank of England’s 2% target according to economists at Deutsche Bank.

They predicted that the consumer prices index fell back to 1.8% in September, down from 2.2% in August amid declining air fares and petrol prices, as well as falling food and drink prices.

Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, said:

Shares in data analytics software firm Palantir (PLTR) surged on Tuesday to close the session up nearly 7%, as investors remained positive about the company's ability to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Palantir's share price closed at an all-time high of $41.45 on Tuesday, with a market capitalisation of $92.83bn (£71bn).

Rahul Bhushan, managing director of Ark Invest Europe, told CNBC that Palantir was well placed to disrupt the dominance of big tech firms.

Read more: Pound, gold and oil prices in focus: commodity and currency check, 9 October

Shares climbed last week following reports that Peter Thiel had completed selling stock in his latest trading plan.

Year-to-date Palantir is up 141%, with the stock having jumped in August on the back of the company's second-quarter results.

Palantir posted second-quarter revenues of $678.1m, a 27% increase year-on-year, against expectations of $652.8m.

Wall Street will be open in just less than an hour, and US markets look set to head into the red after the bell. This is ahead of the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting.

Trading has been fairly choppy this week as investors reprice their expectations on interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve.

In addition to this, US inflation figures will be released on Thursday.

UK gas prices have become more expensive than in Europe with British contracts for delivery in November trading around 2% above the benchmark used on the Continent.

Prices are higher than at the same time last year amid concerns that the UK market could face increasing demand.

Nick Campbell, a managing director at Inspired, said:

UK gas prices are usually cheaper than Europe during the summer but sometimes become more expensive in winter.

However, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, liquefied natural gas shipments to the UK more than halved in January to September compared to 2023 levels.

The budget rumour mill is in full flow with speculation mounting as to what may or may not happen on 30 October. One bit of good news for pension savers is that it looks like a move to introduce a flat rate of tax relief is off the table following concerns about the impact it would have on public sector workers.

The news will no doubt be greeted with a sigh of relief by public and private sector workers alike. This has not been officially confirmed, but the introduction of a flat rate of relief would have been highly complex, expensive and brought further confusion to an already tangled system.

Other options remain on the table, however.

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Let's take a look at what's been happening in equity markets so far today...

• Mondi (MNDI.L) jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 after the paper and packaging firm announced the acquisition of the Western European corrugated converting and solid board assets of Schumacher Packaging for an undisclosed sum. Mondi said the deal will expand its corrugated footprint in key markets and add complementary fibre-based products focused on ecommerce and FMCG to enhance its existing offering.

• United Utilities (UU.L) was boosted by an upgrade to 'outperform' from 'sector perform' at RBC Capital Markets.

• Rio Tinto (RIO.L) was a little weaker after saying it had struck a deal to buy Arcadium Lithium for $6.7bn, placing it among the main producers of the key component of electric vehicle batteries. The mining giant said it was offering $5.85 a share in cash - a 90% premium to the stock's closing price at the end of last week.

• CMC Markets (CMCX.L) surged as it said net operating income for the first half was expected to have risen 45% on the prior year to £180m and that it expects to have swung to a pre-tax profit of £51m from a loss of £2m.

The pound (GBPUSD=X) was again lower against the dollar, slipping 0.2% to 1.3079 at the time of writing, just above the three-week low touched on Monday.

The dollar has been pushed higher as investors were disappointed in China’s reluctance to introduce further stimulus. Markets had anticipated additional fiscal measures to support the country’s ailing economy but were met with a lack of action, compounded by ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. This prompted a flight to safer assets, such as the dollar.

Meanwhile, the pound remained largely subdued the previous session, amid growing concerns ahead of the upcoming autumn budget. Traders are getting worried that rising borrowing costs could limit chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ability to fund critical infrastructure projects and other initiatives aimed at stimulating economic growth.

Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, said:

Sterling was also lower against the euro (GBPEUR=X) in early trading, slipping 0.1% to €1.1925.

Like-for-like sales at Marston’s (MARS.L) jumped 4.8% over the past year thanks to strong growth in both its food and drink divisions.

The group, which operates 1,339 pubs across the UK, said sales grew in the most recent three months to the end of September despite unusually wet weather.

It comes after news this week that its former Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton would be closed in the autumn of next year.

Justin Platt, chief executive, said:

German exports rose in August thanks to strong demand from the UK and US, new data has found.

Exports increased by 1.3% compared with the previous month, the federal statistics office said on Wednesday. Economists had expected a 1% decline.

Germany’s foreign trade surplus widened to €22.5bn from €16.9bn in July, boosted by a sharp drop in imports, down by 3.4%.

Exports of goods to the US were up 5.5% in August while shipments to the UK climbed 5.7%.

Volker Treier, head of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Commerce DIHK said:

Rio Tinto has announced it will buy US-based lithium producer Arcadium Lithium in a deal worth $6.7bn (£5.1bn)

The all-cash takeover, worth $5.85 per share, will transform the London-listed miner into the world’s third-largest supplier of lithium, which is used in a variety of products including hybrid and electric car batteries, laptops and phones.

The move was unanimously approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to take place by the middle of next year.

Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm said:

Arcadium Lithium boss Paul Graves said:

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The latest research by Lomond shows that the number of tenanted properties being listed on the sales market has fallen by nearly -20% since the end of June, suggesting that the Renters' Rights Bill has not yet resulted in the max exodus of landlords that many feared it would.

Lomond has analysed the number of residential properties that have come to the UK sales market with tenants still in situ in September 2024 and compared this to the number that came to market in June 2024*.

The data reveals that: -

• In September 2024, 10,041 properties with tenants still in situ were listed on Great Britain’s housing market. This is -19.2% fewer than the 12,423 properties listed in June 2024.

• This suggests that in the weeks and months immediately following the Renters' Rights Bill’s first reading under the new Labour government, the number of landlords looking to sell their properties in such a rush as to not even wait until the end of their current tenancy has declined.

• This goes directly against the narrative from those who fear the bill will result in fuelling a mass exodus of landlords from the buy-to-let sector.

• In the West Midlands there are currently 600 properties with tenants in situ listed on the market, a significant reduction of -54.7% compared to June’s number of 1,324 properties.

• In the East of England the number is down -50.8% since June; and in the North East it’s down-19.8%.

Boeing (BA) has withdrawn its pay rise offer to around 33,000 US factory workers, with no further negotiations planned, as a strike nears its fourth week.

Boeing and the union held their latest round of negotiations with federal mediators on Monday and Tuesday, but talks collapsed and the sides were left locked in acrimonious stalemate showing no signs of being resolved anytime soon, a person briefed on the talks said.

Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said:

Google (GOOG) is facing the threat of being broken up as the US government weighs up how to tackle its monopoly in online search.

The US Department of Justice suggests it could seek ‘structural remedies’ such as forced product sales – to prevent the firm using its Chrome browser, Android operating system and Play app store to unfairly dominate the search market.

The details were see in a court document filed overnight.

The Justice Department said:

Google, which has more than 90% of the market share for global internet searches, said it plans to appeal.

The Justice Department is expected to file a more detailed proposal with the court by 20 November, according to Reuters reports, while Google will have a chance to propose its own remedies by 20 December

Shares in China slumped overnight as details of economic stimulus plans from officials in Beijing failed to live up to investors’ expectations.

The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 6.6% down by the end of the session and the The Shenzhen Composite Index on China’s second exchange tumbled 8.1%, its sharpest fall since May 1997.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei (^N225) rose 0.9% on the day in Japan, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 1.4% in Hong Kong. This decline followed a plunge of over 9% on Tuesday, its worst since 2008, as traders sold off shares after recent rallies.

South Korea’s markets were closed for a public holiday.

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said:

Meanwhile, Yeap Jun Rong of IG added:

Across the pond on Wall Street, rises in big tech firms such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) boosted the main indexes, even though oil and mining stocks pull downwards.

The Dow Jones index (^DJI) rose 0.3% to 42,080.37, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 1% to 5,751.13, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 1.5% to 18,182.92.

The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes dipped to 4.02% from 0.1% late on Monday.

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog.

As always, we will be taking a deep dive into what's moving markets and happening across the global economy, so stay tuned for all the latest.

Here's a quick look at what's on the agenda for today:

• 7am: Trading updates: CMC Markets, Marstons

• 7am: German trade data for August

• 10am: Post Office chief executive, Nick Read, to give evidence at the Horizon IT inquiry

• 12pm: US weekly mortgage approval data

• 2pm: Bank of Israel’s interest rate decision

• 3.30pm: EIA oil stocks data