- FTSE 100 up five points
- Nvidia off 10% as global tech sell-off hits Wall Street
- Ryanair cuts passenger forecast on Boeing woes
4.50pm
The FTSE 100 finished marginally in positive territory, up just over one point at 8,503.7 to start the week, which was in contrast to the sharp losses being seen across the Atlantic.
4.05pm: FTSE 100 turns green late on
London’s blue chips bounced back late on Monday to head towards the close in positive territory.
Come the afternoon, the FTSE 100 was up five points at 8,505, led by British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS) following an upgrade by UBS to a ‘buy’ rating.
ConvaTec Group PLC (LSE:CTEC) and GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) also sat among the risers.
Anglo American PLC topped the fallers on reports BHP had shelved plans to bid for its rival miner, though fellow mining giants Glencore PLC and Antofagasta PLC were also sold off.
Shares dropped 5.3%, placing Anglo ahead of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC, which declined 3.7% in line with a hammering of portfolio firms, such as Nvidia Corp, on the back of a tech sell-off, sparked by last week’s AI release by China’s DeepSeek.
Tickmill Group partner Patrick Mulleny noted the FTSE 100 had benefited “from its tech underweight status” on Monday, as the likes of US stocks faced a beating.
3.25pm: $1 trillion wiped from European, US tech stocks
Some US$1 trillion (£799 billion) was wiped off European and US artificial intelligence-focused companies’ market capitalisations on Monday.
Nvidia Corp, having dropped as much as 13% at the open, shed US$465 billion off its valuation alone to suffer the largest rout in stock market history, according to Bloomberg.
Its decline meant Apple Inc retook the spot as the world’s largest company by market cap, while Microsoft Corp creeped up to second place.
Microsoft itself faced a beating though, dropping 3.5% early on to lose some $119 billion off its valuation.
Micron Technology Inc, ASML Holding NV, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Dell Technologies Inc and Super Micro Computer Inc were also among the string of names to drop.
The sell off had been sparked by last week’s unveiling of an artificial intelligence bot by China’s DeepSeek, said to be far cheaper and efficient than existing models.
“It's potentially a major challenge to the incumbents, and questions are being raised about the billions of dollars they've pumped into developing their own AI models,” ING Economics analysts noted.
“The breakthrough could be that DeepSeek can achieve a state-of-the-art model without state-of-the-art equipment. The current notion is that for larger models, one needs more computing power - if you want more context, you need more calculations.”
2.42pm: Nasdaq battered as Nvidia sheds 10% on DeepSeek AI scare
Wall Street faced a blow as trading got underway for the week on Monday amidst a global technology sector sell-off that sent Nvidia Corp shares tumbling.
After DeepSeek unveiled a cheaper and more efficient artificial intelligence programme last week, Nvidia opened Monday’s trading 10.8% lower at US$127.57.
Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc were also among technology giants to come under pressure as fears built around the US’ dominance in the space.
The Nasdaq slid 3.1% following the bell as a result, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.8% and the Dow Jones moved 0.2% lower.
“If China is catching up quickly to the US in the AI race, then the economics of AI will be turned on its head,” XTB analyst Kathleen Brooks said.
“It could also have a geopolitical impact since China could be the first superpower to gain super intelligence.”
Wider risk-off sentiment buoyed demand for bonds in the meantime, with the yield on 10-year US debt dropping nine basis points to 4.54% early on.
2.29pm: Ryanair signals ticket price hikes on Boeing issues
Ryanair Holdings PLC has suggested ticket prices may need to be upped as the airline grapples with plane delivery delays from Boeing Co.
Ryanair had slashed its passenger growth forecast for the coming fiscal year to “just” 3% earlier in the day due to Boeing-related issues.
Some 206 million passengers were expected to fly with the Irish airline next year as a result, against 210 million expected previously.
Chief financial officer Neil Sorahan commented that delays to deliveries from Boeing were “the only thing that’s behind the cut in the traffic”.
He added “the ramp-up after the strike wasn’t as fast as we’d have liked,” after a walk out by Boeing workers late last year brought production to a standstill for several weeks.
European airlines were expected to remain “capacity-constrained” as a result, leading to a knock-on effect on prices.
“We’ve turned a corner on fares,” Sorahan said, “in a capacity-constrained market my gut would say that fares will be up in the coming year”.
1.37pm: Bond yields drop as tech sell-off sparks save haven rush
Bond yields slid on Monday as a global technology stock sell-off appeared to drive appetite for safe-haven assets.
Rates, which move inversely to prices, on 10 and 30-year UK gilts each fell by five basis points to 4.58% and 5.14% respectively.
Yields also dropped on European bonds, while the US 10-year rate moved nine basis points lower to 4.53%.
Declines coincided with a battering of technology stocks globally on Monday in the wake of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence programme rollout last week.
“This suggests that investors are putting the proceeds of dumped stocks straight into the bond market for now,” Trade Nation analyst David Morrison said.
“It could also imply that equities could have more downside, given opportunists don’t appear to be in any rush to buy at cheaper levels.”
Said to use far cheaper and more efficient chips, DeepSake’s bot has raised fears around the likes of heavy spending at western peers, including Nvidia Corp, which dropped 11.7% in pre-market trading.
“Until now, the conventional wisdom has been clear: the best AI models rely on massive datasets and immense computational power,” Morningstar’s Kenneth Lamont added.
“But DeepSeek’s latest innovations are turning that assumption on its head. The start-up’s new models demonstrate how efficiency gains in AI development can reduce reliance on brute-force computing power.”
1.11pm: DeepSeek threatens to turn AI firms' strategies on their heads
DeepSeek’s cheaper and more efficient artificial intelligence model has left technology firms at a crossroads on how to press on, according to Jefferies analysts.
Citing “negative implications” for builders, Jefferies noted “pressure” was now on for firms to justify ever-increasing capital expenditure plans.
“The key question for the data centre builders is whether it continues to be a ‘build at all costs’ strategy with accelerated model improvements, or whether focus now shifts towards higher capital efficiency,” analysts said.
DeepSeek, having last week rolled out its free bot, sparked a global technology stock sell-off on Monday as fears built around so-far dominant names, such as Nvidia Corp.
Jefferies assured that any effects on the likes of data centre demand would likely take over a year to seep through and impact earnings.
“We see limited risk of alterations or cancellations to existing orders and expect at this stage a shift in expectations to higher [returns] on existing investments driven by more efficient models.
“Overall, we remain bullish on the sector where scale leaders benefit from a widening moat and higher pricing power.”
12.47pm: UBS backing sees British American Tobacco top risers
British American Tobacco PLC jumped over 4% to top the FTSE 100’s risers on Monday after fetching a ‘buy’ rating from UBS on likely nicotine pouch-fueled growth ahead.
Flagging BAT as its ‘top pick’ in a note, UBS also hiked the firm’s share price target from 3,000p to 3,900p.
Velo branded nicotine pouch products were expected to accelerate new category sales growth to 16% in 2026, enabling BAT to deliver on its outlook, the bank said.
BAT’s sell-off of a remaining 25.5% stake tobacco brand ITC also offered flexibility for larger buybacks and debt reduction ahead, UBS noted, leaving scope for re-rating.
Regulatory headwinds looked to be subsiding in the meantime, analysts added, citing the Trump Administration’s move to prevent a planned ban on menthol cigarettes in the US.
Shares climbed 4.3% to 3,137p on Monday, while the FTSE 100 dropped 13 points to sit at 8,485.
12.19pm: Bitcoin tumbles as US financial crisis warning emerges
Bitcoin fell below the US$100,000 mark on Monday as fears around a US financial crisis and a wider technology sector sell-off hit.
A 3.7% decline for the day sent Bitcoin to US$98,979 and well off a record above US$108,000 seen just a week ago before Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
This coincided with a battering for global technology stocks, to which Bitcoin’s performance has historically been correlated, on news last week of a potentially revolutionary artificial intelligence bot from China’s DeepSeek.
Said to be reliant on far cheaper and less data-hungry chips, the technology has raised questions over existing dominant sector names, such as Nvidia Corp.
Prominent crypto trader and former BitMEX exchange boss Arthur Hayes separately laid out warnings of an impending US financial crisis and resultant Federal Reserve stimulus.
“I am calling for a $70k to $75k correction in [Bitcoin],” he said in an X post, before “a mini financial crisis” and “resumption of money printing”.
Bitcoin could then top US$250,000 “by the end of the year” as a result, Hayes added.
Smaller tokens also took a beating on Monday, with Ether and Ripple down 5.3% and 7.1% respectively as risk-off sentiment swept the market.
11.39am: Wall Street set for pummeling on global tech sell-off
Wall Street looked set to take a beating ahead of Monday’s trading as a global technology sector sell-off sparked by China’s DeepSeek threatened to weigh.
Futures had the Nasdaq off 4.2% ahead of the opening bell, while the Dow Jones and S&P 500 were seen 0.9% and 2.4% lower respectively.
Last week saw DeepSeek unveil a free AI assistant using chips said to be far cheaper and less data-hungry than existing technology.
Nvidia Corp was among a host of stocks globally set for a pummelling as a result, with shares tumbling 11.1% in pre-market trading.
“The prospect of a high-performance, low-cost product provides significant question marks over the necessity of spending hundreds of billions on Nvidia chips and development going forward,” Scope Markets analyst Joshua Mahony commented.
“This is a timely reminder that the AI era will likely be unpredictable, just like the development of the internet [and] that the huge investment undertaken by big tech over recent years may not have built them the kind of impenetrable moat against Chinese competition many had presumed.”
11.20am: Morgan Stanley slashes UK economic growth forecast
Morgan Stanley has revised down its forecast for UK economic growth this year on a recent slowdown and signs of labour market weakness.
Gross domestic product would likely tick up by 0.9% in 2025, according to the Wall Street bank, against a previous estimate of 1.3%.
This would be off the 1.5% seen by the Bank of England, which it had said should be driven by hiked public spending under chancellor Rachel Reeves following October’s Budget.
Morgan Stanley’s latest forecast follows stagnant growth over the three months to September last year though, and forecasts for unchanged GDP over the final quarter.
Despite two interest rate cuts by the Bank of England in recent months, the bank warned the knock-on effects from a 16-year high rate of 5.25% remained.
“While the peak impact of the BoE's policy tightening is likely behind us, its drag on the economy still persists,” a note read.
Monday also saw separate warnings emerge from businesses over job cuts and slowing investment ahead in response to tax hikes laid out in the Budget.
11.04am: China's DeepSeek’s sparks tech sell-off; Nvidia off 14%
China’s DeepSeek has sparked a global technology sector sell-off after unveiling an artificial intelligence bot said to be cheaper and less data-hungry than rivals’.
Startup DeepSeek’s free AI open-source assistant was unveiled last week, matching OpenAI models but at a tenth of the cost and requiring a fraction of the data.
Analysts noted the release threatened views that AI would fuel demand from chipmakers to data centres, leaving jitters around big sector names in the crowded space.
Nvidia Corp tumbled 13.8% in pre-market trading on Monday as a result, leading peers such as Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Tesla Inc lower.
Futures pointed to a 4.4% drop for the Nasdaq ahead of Monday’s open as a result, as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were seen 2.5% and 0.8% off respectively.
European technology stocks also faced a hit, with Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV tumbling 10.3%.
Japanese peer Tokyo Electron Ltd dropped 4.9% in the meantime, as the Nikkei faced a 0.9% decline.
“The AI super-race is seeing new challengers emerge and not everyone is going to win,” AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould said.
“The companies that enjoyed first-mover advantage will now be under pressure to launch something even better or be left behind.
“It’s natural evolution - when someone launches a product or service that sees strong demand, someone else will always try to come along with something cheaper to undercut the market leaders.”
10.12am: Anglo American slumps as BHP holds off on another bid
Anglo American PLC slumped almost 6% on Monday following reports rival BHP Group Ltd was holding off from making another bid for the miner.
According to the Financial Times, a 40% rise in Anglo’s share price over the past year had deterred the Australian group.
Another bid would now be too expensive to justify as a result, Financial Times-cited sources said.
BHP had tabled a £39 billion offer last year, though was unsuccessful.
Anglo subsequently launched a major restructuring effort, including plans to dispose of its coal, platinum and diamond wings, which in turn buoyed the shares.
Anglo dropped 5.8% to 2,387.5p on Monday in the wake of the report.
9.43am: GSK commits £50mln to cancer vaccine deal with Oxford University
GSK PLC will pour £50 million into research with Oxford University over vaccines to prevent some types of cancer.
A GSK-Oxford Cancer Immuno-Prevention Programme would investigate how pre-cancerous cells develop, the FTSE 100 pharmaceutical said.
Over at least three years, research based on Oxford’s expertise would look into “tumour-specific proteins that prompt the immune system to recognise cancer” in order to assess the viability of preventative vaccines.
Such preventative treatment is already under development, aimed at creating vaccines able to introduce personalised proteins to stimulate an immune response against cancerous cells.
“The purpose of the vaccine is not to vaccinate against established cancer, but to actually vaccinate against that pre-cancer stage,” Oxford professor Sarah Blagden told BBC Radio 4.
“Cancer does not come from nowhere [they] can take up to 20 years, sometimes even more, to develop. The normal cell transitions to become cancerous. At that point most cancers are invisible.”
Blagden will head up the programme with GSK’s Timothy Clay and Ramon Kemp.
GSK climbed 2.5% on Monday.
9.21am: Businesses prepare to cut staff as slowdown looms - CBI
Businesses have flagged plans to axe staff and hike prices in order to weather an anticipated slowdown across the economy ahead.
According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), private sector bosses were forecasting a “significant slowdown” in activity over the coming three months.
Declines were anticipated across all main sectors, the CBI said, as firms reduced headcounts, moved roles overseas and slashed investment in response to tax hikes.
Activity had fallen over the last three months, with the CBI’s survey of 990 companies finding service sector volumes were seen falling by 20% ahead, as manufacturing output fell 19%.
“After a grim lead-up to Christmas, the New Year hasn’t brought any sense of renewal,” CBI economist Alpesh Paleja commented.
“Anecdotes suggest that companies are being hit by lacklustre demand and caution among consumers, while also continuing to adjust to measures announced in the Budget.”
Companies have repeatedly warned of surging costs in response to the likes of chancellor Rachel Reeves’ employer national insurance hike, laid out in October’s Budget.
“There is an urgent need to get momentum back into the economy,” Paleja added.
“The government can help shift the UK’s economic narrative with more determined focus on measures that could drive growth.”
8.57am: Perplexity proposes bid to allow US ownership in TikTok
Perplexity AI has proposed plans to allow the US government to buy up to 50% of TikTok, reports said on Monday.
According to the Associated Press, TikTok’s US business would be merged with San Francisco-based Perplexity under the proposal, submitted last week.
Following an earlier bid, the latest proposal was reportedly laid out after discussions with the Trump administration.
Donald Trump had signalled the US could buy part of the app after his inauguration last week, as an effective nationwide ban on TikTok was also pushed back.
Beijing-based ByteDance has been ordered to sell TikTok’s operations or face the app being taken offline in the US, leading to a brief blackout ahead of Trump’s White House return.
However, Perplexity’s proposal would reportedly see ByteDance retain a stake, albeit without any longer contributing to the algorithm that fuels the app.
The US government could own up to half of the new entity following an initial public offering of at least US$300 billion, but would not have any voting power.
8.35am: Ryanair cuts passenger forecast on Boeing delays
Ryanair Holdings PLC has blamed Boeing Co delays as it slashed passenger growth guidance for the coming year on Monday.
Boeing was no longer expected to deliver “sufficient” aircraft to facilitate passenger growth to 210 million over the coming fiscal year, Ryanair said in results.
Though production of 737 jets was recovering since strikes at Boeing late last year, delays had “forced” the target to be cut to 206 million, or "just" 3% growth, it added.
“Over the coming year, we’ll reallocate this scarce capacity growth to those regions and airports (in Poland, Sweden and Italy) who are investing in growth by cutting/abolishing aviation taxes, and incentivising traffic growth,” the airline noted.
A stronger Christmas and New Year had fueled a 9% increase in traffic to 45 million passengers over the third quarter, the results also showed.
Aided by marginally higher fares, post-tax profit surged from €15 million (£12.6 million) to €149 million on a 10% increase in revenue to €2.96 billion.
Operating costs rose 8% to €2.93 billion in the meantime, partly due to Boeing delays, while savings from fuel hedging were highlighted.
Around 85% of fuel had been hedged for the coming quarter, alongside 75% for the year ahead, Ryanair said.
Shares climbed 2.1% on Monday.
8.09am: FTSE 100 slides early on
London’s blue chips faced a decline as the week’s trading got underway on Monday, with the FTSE 100 dropping 21 points to 8,480.
Fresnillo PLC led the drop, falling 3.6%, as the likes of Glencore PLC and Antofagasta PLC also slipped following gains for miners on Friday.
British American Tobacco PLC led the risers in the meantime, up 3.3%, alongside ConvaTec Group PLC.
Elsewhere, WH Smith PLC surged 7.5% to top the FTSE 250’s risers on news it was mulling a sale of its high street business.
Dr Martens PLC receded 1.2% meanwhile, after flagging progress in its turnaround on higher third quarter constant currency revenue, but lower sales on a reported basis.
7.56am: Dr Martens sees progress in turnaround
Dr Martens PLC has unveiled stronger revenue on a constant currency basis for the third quarter and flagged “good progress” in its turnaround.
Group revenue climbed by 3% to £267 million, aided by stronger American direct-to-consumer sales, the boot maker said Monday.
Dr Martens noted it was “on track” to meet a key objective of returning to positive direct-to-consumer growth across the region over the second half of the year as a result.
Asia Pacific revenue climbed in the meantime, as European sales declined on “deep promotional” activity, “especially in December”.
Group sales on a reported basis declined, however, by 3% to £260 million, though guidance was left unchanged, including for a reduction in net debt to £310 million.
“We have made good progress against our objective of turning around our USA performance,” chief executive Ije Nwokorie commented.
“We continue to actively manage our costs and are on track to meet our inventory reduction target for 2025.
“The team and I are squarely focused on returning the business to sustainable and profitable growth.”
7.37am: WH Smith weighs sale of high street business
WH Smith PLC has confirmed it is looking to sell its high street business as focus turns to the travel sector.
“WH Smith confirms that it is exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash-generative part of the group, including a possible sale,” a statement said.
Encompassing some 500 shops and around 5,000 staff, WH Smith's high street business appeared over 230 years ago when the first store was opened as a news vendor.
WH Smith added it had become a “focused global travel retailer” over the past decade, leaving it with over 1,200 such stores across 32 countries.
Three-quarters of its revenue and 85% of trading profit came from the travel business, the company said.
High street retailers have come under pressure recently, facing a decline in sales last year as consumer sentiment has also waned.
A string of firms have also flagged a spike in costs ahead on the back of the Budget’s employer national insurance hike and increased minimum wages.
Around 200 of WH Smith’s high street stores also host Post Office counters, with the latter noting it was in contact with the retailer to “to understand [about] plans for their high street stores”.
7.12am: FTSE 100 to fall further
Futures had the FTSE 100 slipping a further 35 points to 8,436 on Monday after a decline on Friday took the index into negative territory for the week.
After last week was dominated by headlines surrounding re-elected US president Donald Trump, this week is set to bring the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate call, alongside the likes of US economic data and personal consumption expenditures figures.
Overnight, Asian markets were mixed following a negative end to last week on Wall Street, with Korea’s Kospi up 0.9% but Japan’s Nikkei down 0.9%.
Back in London, attention on Monday was set to be on Dr Martens PLC, as Ryanair Holdings PLC also reported.
5.00am: Monday's schedule
Monday is set to bring updates from Dr Martens and Ryanair to kick off next week's proceedings.
Any sign of recovery under new chief executive Ije Nwokorie will be watched for in Dr Marten's update... Read more
Announcements due:
Trading updates: Dr Martens PLC, Ryanair Holdings PLC
US earnings: AT&T Inc
AGMs: Renew Holdings PLC
Economic announcements: New Home Sales (US)