Stephen Carroll

The US President publicly withdrew support for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal following a phone call between the two leaders on Tuesday.

The UK government has recorded its biggest budget surplus on record.

Revenue exceeded spending by £30.4 billion in January, more than double the figure for the same month last year, according to official statistics.

Our senior economy reporter, Philip Aldrich, says it's a positive surprise for the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Baldrick adds that January is the biggest tax month of the year as taxpayers settle liabilities from the previous fiscal year.

The good news for the government comes as UK retail sales started the year with the fastest growth in 20 months.

The mining company Anglo-American is taking another major right down over its struggling De Beers diamond unit.

The company announced a $2.3 billion impairment in its latest results, the third such charge in two years.

Anglo-American is in the process of a complete transformation of its business.

It reported a 2% rise in underlying earnings from its continuing operations and full-year profits of $6.4 billion.

And those are your top stories on the markets.

The stock 600 up by half of 1%.

Wall Street futures pointing higher as well, up three tenths for S&P.

Minis four tenths higher for Nasdaq futures.

After those UK public finances figures, we're looking at UK gilts rallying.

The 10-year yield down two basis points this morning, 4.34%.

And that's a bigger rally than what we're seeing elsewhere in Europe.

The 10-year French and German yields holding pretty steady today.

The euro is a tenth of 1% weaker on the UK.

Against the dollar at 117.61, the pound also a touch weaker at 134.56 this morning.