FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks rise as China’s economic growth hits one-year low

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) and European stocks were higher on Monday as China’s economic growth slowed to its lowest level in a year as its trade war with the US dampened activity.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the country expanded 4.8% year-on-year in the July to September quarter, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The reading matched expectations and was a slowdown from the second quarter of the year, when GDP rose 5.2%. It also came in weaker than the 5.4% growth recorded in the three months to March.

However, on a quarterly basis, GDP grew 1.1% in the third quarter, compared with a forecast 0.8% increase and a revised 1.0% gain in the previous quarter.

It comes ahead of China’s latest four-day “fourth plenum” meeting which starts today, where Communist party leaders are gathering to decide the country’s next five-year plan.

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Meanwhile, a major internet outage has hit dozens of popular websites, online games and apps this morning. Users reported problems accessing sites such as Amazon (AMZN), Halifax, Roblox (RBLX), Fortnite and Snapchat (SNAP).

The outage was related to a glitch at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant’s on-demand cloud computing platform which underpins many online operations.

Downdetector, the platform outage monitor owned by Ookla, said it has seen more than 4 million reports of issues globally on Monday morning – more than double the 1.8 million reports it sees on a full weekday normally.

London’s benchmark index (^FTSE) was 0.3% higher in early trade. Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) rose 1.3% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris slipped 0.1% into the red. The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was up 0.6%. Wall Street is set for a positive start as S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow futures (YM=F) and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were all in the green. The pound was flat against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) at 1.3418. Key companies reporting this week (only applies on Mondays) include Tesla, Netflix, Intel, Lloyds and Unilever.

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10 mins ago

LaToya Harding

Users report major internet outage after AWS suffers 'operational issue'

Our markets live blog has been a bit delayed today as a major internet outage has hit dozens of popular websites, online games and apps.

Users reported problems accessing sites such as Amazon, Halifax, Roblox, Fortnite and Snapchat.

The outage was related to a glitch at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant’s on-demand cloud computing platform which underpins many online operations.

Downdetector, the platform outage monitor owned by Ookla, saiit has seen more than four million reports of issues globally just this morning – more than double the 1.8m reports it sees on a full weekday normally.

It released a statement saying: 25 mins ago

LaToya Harding

China’s economy expands at slowest pace in a year

China’s economic growth has slowed to its lowest level in a year, as the trade war with the US has dampened activity.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the country expanded 4.8% year-on-year in the July to September quarter, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The reading matched expectations and was a slowdown from the second quarter of the year, when GDP rose 5.2%. It also came in weaker than the 5.4% growth recorded in the three months to March.

However, on a quarterly basis, GDP grew 1.1% in the third quarter, compared with a forecast 0.8% increase and a revised 1.0% gain in the previous quarter.

It comes ahead of China’s latest four-day “fourth plenum” meeting which starts today, where Communist party leaders are gathering to decide the country’s next five-year plan.

Today’s data also showed that China’s retail sales remained weak while factory output strengthened, a blow to hopes that its economy can rebalance away from exports and towards domestic consumption.

Growth in industrial production rose to 6.5% year-on-year in September, up from 5.2%, while retail sales growth slowed to 3% from 3.4%

The NSB said: Today at 7:51 AM UTC

LaToya Harding

Asia overnight

Stocks were higher in Asia overnight, amid signs that trade tensions between the US and China are likely to ease, with the Nikkei (^N225) rising 3.4% on the day in Japan, on reports that Sanae Takaichi, who is expected to become the country’s first female prime minister, will boost stimulus.

Meanwhile the Hang Seng (^HSI) advanced 2.4% in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.6% up by the end of the session. In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 1.8% on the day.

Across the pond on Wall Street, stocks rose on Friday despite concerns in the US regional banking sector. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was also 0.5% higher. The Dow Jones (^DJI) likewise gained 0.5%.

Futures are also rallying as Donald Trump over the weekend called the current trade stand-off with China “not sustainable”. Today at 7:20 AM UTC

LaToya Harding

Coming up

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what's moving markets and happening across the global economy.

To the day ahead we have Germany's September PPI, Italy August current account balance, Eurozone August construction output, Canada September industrial and raw materials price index. And from central banks we have ECB's Schnabel, Nagel and Vujcic speak, BoC Q3 business outlook survey

In turns of earnings is Zions Bancorp and elsewhere is China's Fourth Plenum through to 23 October.

Here's a snapshot of what's on the agenda:

10am: Eurozone GDP report for Q2 2025 (updated reading) 3pm: CB Leading index survey of the US economy

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