▸ Pound jumps against the dol­lar amid signs of strength in UK eco­nomy

▸ US blue-chip and tech-heavy indices inch higher in early trad­ing

▸ Brent crude climbs to $63 a bar­rel while gold remains roughly flat

The pound jumped against the dol­lar yes­ter­day, put­ting it on course for its best day since May, as stronger eco­nomic activ­ity triggered an unwind­ing of neg­at­ive bets against the cur­rency.

Signs of strength in the UK eco­nomy, com­bined with a weaker dol­lar, pushed ster­ling up 0.9 per cent to $1.333, its highest level for more than a month.

A closely watched sur­vey showed yes­ter­day that UK busi­ness activ­ity expan­ded at a stronger pace than expec­ted, paint­ing a rosier pic­ture of the coun­try’s eco­nomy.

The S&P Global UK Com­pos­ite pur­chas­ing man­agers’ index for Novem­ber came in at 51.2, com­pared with ana­lysts’ expect­a­tions of 50.5. A read­ing above 50 indic­ates expan­sion in activ­ity since the pre­vi­ous month.