It is no exaggeration to say that financial markets and governments across the world have greeted the clean sweep by Republicans in the US elections with some nervousness.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is right to identify excessive risk aversion as a critical issue in UK pensions. Her solution is consolidation, but while boosting scale this way is helpful, it is no magic wand.

While Labour’s first Budget was a surprise in terms of the scale of the fiscal loosening, there remain grounds for cautious optimism about UK equities.