Business news – live: FTSE 100 close to record high as stock markets open
The FTSE 100 closed just short of a new record high yesterday, but Wednesday brings a new set of factors which may sway investor sentiment, including Rachel Reeves detailing her spending review, which is expected to included £5bn in cuts.
Final results are due from the likes of Revolution Beauty - under the microscope with Frasers recently - while overnight markets in Asia reacted by pushing higher after another day of trade talks in London between Washington and Beijing.
Further reaction is expected to the news of the FCA giving the Pisces stock market for private companies the go-ahead, while speculation around the Bank of England preparing to lower interest rates once more next week also arose following lowered employment data and slowing salary growth.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
Britain ready to implement US tariff deal, trade minister says
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - Britain is ready to implement its side of a tariff deal with the United States and is hopeful for a proclamation from U.S. President Donald Trump to put the agreement into effect in the coming days, trade minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Thursday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump on May 8 agreed to reduce tariffs on UK imports of cars and steel to the U.S., with Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on beef and ethanol, but implementation of the deal has been delayed. Reynolds met U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday and discussed the implementation of the deal. Asked on Thursday if there would be an update by the end of the week, Reynolds said he was "very hopeful". "We're ready to go, and as soon as the president and the White House are ready to go on their side, we'll implement (our) part of the deal," Reynolds told reporters. Reynolds said he would issue a government order known as a statutory instrument to implement the changes to reciprocal tariffs. Officials said that the update on implementation was likely to come early next week. One of the details to be ironed out before the deal can be implemented is steel quotas. Reynolds added that he wanted to make sure the tariff reductions applied to every bit of the UK steel industry, as the U.S. finalises quotas that will place supply chain requirements on British steel exports to the United States. The bioethanol industry has warned its future is under threat, with Associated British Foods (ABF.L), opens new tab deciding on the fate of a plant later this month. Reynolds acknowledged the deal could increase competition but said the industry was already struggling. "We are very sensitive to the ethanol issue... (but) they're losing a lot of money already," Reynolds said, adding regulatory tweaks could help, but that for financial support: "any intervention I make has to be a clear route to profitability." "So there are much wider issues for these partners than just the U.S. trade deal."
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
Unclear when Northern's reduced Sunday rail service will end
A rail service says it is unclear when it will stop a reduced Sunday service it has been running since late last year. Northern has been running fewer services in north-west England every Sunday since 22 December 2024, because it has not been able to find enough conductors to work those firm's managing director Tricia Williams told a Transport for the North Meeting on Tuesday the reduced service was "not what we all want" but did offer customers "predictability".Northern said it was still negotiating with National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) over Sunday working. RMT confirmed discussions were ongoing. The firm has previously said the problem it faced on Sundays was it was contractually outside the working week for North West services include routes from Barrow and Windermere to Manchester Airport, and from Barrow to Williams said the reduced service currently relied on volunteers. "The success criteria for us is about achieving a truly seven-day railway," she said. She said the aim for the company was to ensure no more than 2% of services were being cancelled by the end of 2027 and that 90% of trains arrived within three minutes of said it was conducting "detailed discussions with Northern Trains to bring together working practices for conductors from three legacy companies into a single, modern agreement"."The talks aim to ensure consistency, reflect advances in technology, and support reliable services throughout the week", a spokesperson proposals would be subject to government approval, they follows Northern being issued a breach notice by the Department for Transport (DfT) in July 2024 for cancelling too many trains.
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
US household wealth dropped in first quarter as tariff concerns hit stocks
June 12 (Reuters) - U.S. household wealth fell at the end of the first quarter, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday, dragged down by a stock market rout that has since reversed course. The net worth of households and non-profit groups had declined to $169.3 trillion as of March 31, the Fed said in its quarterly U.S. financial accounts report, down from $170.9 trillion as of the end of last year. It was the first decline in household net worth since the third quarter of 2023. A slide in real estate values during the first quarter added to the equities-driven decline. The S&P 1500 Composite index, which encompasses the vast majority of the U.S. stock market, shed about $2.5 trillion in value in the first three months of 2025 as investors worried that President Donald Trump's tariffs could drive up inflation, send the economy into recession, or do both simultaneously. The drop in wealth may prove short-lived - the S&P 1500 is currently up about $1.2 trillion on a year-to-date basis and is essentially unchanged since Trump took office for a second time on January 20.
