Good morning. Apologies for the late start today – gremlins in the Telegraph’s publishing system caused a hold-up.

There’s one story in town today: BT, which has become the latest target on nationalisation plans. Its share price fell nearly 4pc shortly after open this morning, but has pulled back and is about 1.4pc down now. I’ll bring you the latest on that throughout the day.

5 things to start your day

Broadband | BT boss says nationalisation could cost £100bn

Philip Jansen has hit back at Labour’s bombshell pledge suggesting it would cost five times the £20bn John McDonnell posited. Find out why

Eurozone | Germany is not out of the economic woods yet

The economy eked out 0.1pc growth in the third quarter but this was offset by revisions showing a deeper fall in the preceding quarter. See the full article

Transport | Stobart board asks for extra time to consider deal

The troubled transport company is considering a cut-price offer from the buyout firm DBay Advisors. Get the details

Jobs | Quarter of workers to have pay set by the state

Labour’s £10 an hour minimum wage for all workers over the age of 16 would mean 6.5 million workers in total are impacted in 2020. Read more here

Economy | Businesses unite to tackle UK's productivity puzzle

More than 20 companies are supporting the Be the Business campaign that aims to ease the productivity slump. What companies are on board?

What happened overnight

Asian markets mostly rose Friday as trade hopes were given a boost by Donald Trump's economic aide saying “enormous progress” had been made in talks with China, easing recent concerns that they were stumbling.

Hong Kong enjoyed a much-needed leg-up after a bruising week but sentiment remained fragile after the city endured another night of violent protest, with the transport network partially shut down and many businesses closed for a fifth day.

The broad regional gains came after top White House adviser Larry Kudlow said that the long-awaited mini trade deal with China was on track as part of a wider pact.

“The deal is not complete but we've made enormous progress,” he told reporters, adding that the talks were “coming down to the short strokes”.

His comments follow a week of unease about the much-vaunted talks, after Trump dismissed Chinese claims of a plan to roll back tariffs as the negotiations progress, while reports said Beijing was uneasy about some aspects of the developing deal.

And on Thursday, China’s commerce ministry had said the US lifting of tariffs was a “condition” to reaching the preliminary deal – suggesting it was not imminent.

Coming up today

Eyes will be on Kier’s shareholder meeting, as the government contractor looks set to face an investor revolt. Ahead of the meeting, advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis had both recommended shareholders vote against the company’s payouts to its executives – which came in at £2.1m in the year to June. Kier racked up losses of £245m during that period, even as it took steps to slash costs and raise cash by selling businesses.

Full-year results

Future

AGMs

Kier

Economics

Consumer price index (EU), Retail sales (US), Industrial production (US)