- FTSE falls 8 points to 9,208
- Retail sales rise 0.6% in July
- House prices hit new record
- Investors eye US jobs report
4.41pm: Stocks retreat
The FTSE 100 edged lower as stocks pulled back in the wake of a big miss on US payrolls. The index closed down 8 points at 9,208.
“An initially positive reaction to today’s weak payrolls report has given way to some classic ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ action in Friday’s afternoon trading," IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
"Traders are battling a mix of relief that today’s report confirms a September rate cut while being worried that weak period of job growth spells stagflation ahead.”
3.40pm: Stocks drop, Nvidia loses almost $200bn of value
London's blue-chips have dropped into the red, and those in the US too.
The Dow Jones is down 0.7% and the S&P 500 0.6%, with the Nasdaq dipping 0.4%.
Nvidia is down 4% down, Microsoft 1.8%, and when one $4 trillion company and one $3.8 trillion company falls it tends to weigh.
Alphabet, Meta, Broadcom, Tesla are all in the green still.
*NASDAQ 100 TURNS NEGATIVE AFTER ERASING NEARLY 1% GAIN
— George Pearkes (@peark.es) September 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
2.55pm: Positive but mixed start for Wall Street
The FTSE 100 has fallen as Wall Street stocks started higher, led by the Nasdaq, which is up 0.4%.
However the picture is inconsists, with the S&P 500 up only 0.1% and the Dow Jones up 32 points or less than 0.1%.
Despite the poor jobs report, the domestically tilted small- and mid-cap Russell 2000 is leading the way, up 1%.
On the S&P, Lululemon is down 16% as earnings guidance fell well short of estimates, with tariffs and weaker sales.
Semiconductor shares are mixed, with Nvidia down 2.3%, AMD down 4.4%, but Broadcom up 11.5% as it has been picked by OpenAI as it starts mass production of its own AI chips.
1.41pm: US stock futures mixed, Treasury yields fall
US Treasury yields are falling further and stock futures are pointing to a mixed start.
Dow Jones futures are down 0.3%, those for the S&P 500 are flat and Nasdaq 100 futures are up 0.5%.
The yield on the US 2-year government bond is down 8.5 basis points at 3.51% and the 10-year is down 5 basis points to under 4.11%, the lowest since early April.
The 30-yr yield is down just under four basis points at 4.82%, the lowest in just over a month.
1.32pm: US jobs a bad miss
New jobs created in the US economy were lower than expected in August, with unemployment rising to 4.3% from 4.2%.
Just 22,000 jobs were added, the non-farm payrolls report revealed, much lower than the 73K the month before and 75K that the market expected.
Private payrolls came in at 38k, well below the forecast 75K and the previous 83K.
Government payrolls fell 16K, down from a 10K decline in July.
US average hourly earnings rose 0.3% month-on-month, as expected, with wages rising 3.7% year-on-year, which was down from 3.9% in July and below the 3.8% earnings growth forecast.
1.25pm: Technical issues may delay US jobs report
With traders around the world waiting for the US non-farm payrolls report, news has emerged from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics of "technical issues".
Data may be delayed, Bloomberg reported.
US Treasury yields dropped on the news.
BLS statement: https://t.co/EjQer9e4aF pic.twitter.com/2u0ZkJwDSs
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) September 5, 2025
A reminder that a month ago, Donald Trump had the head of the BLS sacked following a disappointing set of NFPs, including big downward revisions to previous months' figures, .
BLS head Erika McEntarfer was replaced by Trump loyalist EJ Antoni.
12.33pm: One TRILLION dollars for Musk?
Tesla boss Elon Musk has been awarded a $1 trillion (yes $1,000,000,000,000) incentive package by the board of the EV company.
In order to receive this top shelf of the share payout, he would need Tesla’s market capitalisation to reach $8.5 trillion.
That is over double the current market cap of Nvidia, which is the most valuable company in the world today.
12pm: Bonds unmoved by latest Downing Street moves
UK bonds are little moved today.
With the market having apparently been watching Westminster of late, it doesn't appear to care about the latest reshuffle by PM Keir Starmer.
Angela Rayner has resigned as Deputy PM over her failure to pay £40,000 of stamp duty, following a report from the government's ethics adviser on whether she breached the ministerial code.
Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, investment minister, is also leaving her role after less than a year as part of a reshuffle, the FT is reporting.
10.30am: Small caps making news
Metals One PLC (AIM:MET1) is dialling up its graphite game, snapping up a 10.45% stake in Evolution Energy Minerals Ltd (ASX:EV1) and eyeing a bigger slice via its rights issue. The move gives it a foothold in Evolution’s Chilalo Graphite Project in Tanzania, with offtake deals already covering most of the planned production. Read more
Gear4music Holdings PLC (AIM:G4M) shares hit the high notes early on Friday, jumping over 9% after upbeat AGM news. Q1 sales surged 27%, and momentum’s still rolling into Q2. Management says its growth plan is working, with market share gains and forecasts getting another lift. Read more
Victoria PLC (AIM:VCP) shares barely budged as the flooring group said trading’s still on track. Management’s banking on “self-help” moves to lift earnings by £70mln and cut debt. A recent debt refinance gives wiggle room to improve operations and gear up for better times. Investors seemed mildly encouraged. Read more
Tullow Oil PLC (LSE:TLW) has a new boss lined up – Ian Perks takes over as CEO from 15 September 2025. He’s an industry veteran with big projects under his belt, including multi-billion-dollar LNG ventures. Outgoing interim CEO Richard Miller heads back to his CFO role as Tullow eyes a steadier future. Read more
capAI PLC (LSE:CPAI) has hired Jayne Lytel as AI Architect for its US arm, capMedia. She’ll drive development of Author42, Creator42 and Game42. An AI Fellow at R42 with three decades in publishing and tech, she’s previously worked with NASA contractors and Booz Allen Hamilton. Read more
9.30am: House prices at new record
UK house prices keep creeping higher, not exactly soaring but enough to set yet another record at £299,331. Halifax says that’s barely £600 up since January – more pocket change than property boom.
First-time buyers are finally catching a break, with their average prices slipping 0.6% since May. The North East and Northern Ireland are still leading the charge, while the South West is sagging under the weight of second homes.
Sellers are throwing in sweeteners to tempt cautious buyers, while talk of tax changes has those higher up the ladder firmly in “wait and see” mode.
Oh, and the FTSE 100 has regained its footing. It's now 33 points up at 9,249.93, a gain of just over a third of a percent.
8.45am: Sun shines on retail sales
UK retail sales got a 0.6% bump in July, thanks to sunshine and the women’s Euros, according to the ONS.
Over three months, though, sales slipped 0.6% as supermarkets and sports shops lost steam, while online and fashion kept tills ringing.
The stats office admitted it messed up earlier numbers, blaming dodgy seasonal tweaks, and promised to do better. Still, its figures matter — they’re what the Bank of England uses to decide how much to squeeze your wallet.
8.15am: Cautious start for the Footsie
The FTSE 100 jumped 24 points in the first few minutes of trading, before retracing most of its gains to sit just 7 points higher at 9,223.71 around 15 minutes into Friday's session.
Entain PLC (LSE:ENT) led the blue-chip gainers, rising 1.5%, with miners Rio Tinto Ltd (LSE:RIO, ASX:RIO, OTC:RTNTF) and Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) close behind, each up about 1.3%.
NatWest Group PLC (LSE:NWG) topped the loser board, down 1.2%, while United Utilities Group PLC (LSE:UU.) and Compass Group PLC (LSE:CPG) each shed around 0.5%.
Peel Hunt Ltd (AIM:PEEL) surged over 10% after saying it expects full-year results to be ahead of expectations, after a first half performance it described as "strong".
Gear4music Holdings PLC (AIM:G4M) also jumped more than 10% after it released an upbeat trading and AGM statement and raised its full-year expectations.
7.40am: US jobs under the spotlight
US jobs data this afternoon are likely to influence how markets, including the Footsie, end the week. They come ahead of US consumer inflation numbers next week and then the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision the following week.
"Ahead of today's start to this run, markets have put in a strong performance over the past 24 hours, after soft data meant investors became increasingly convinced that the Fed would cut rates this month," commented Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid. "Those prints pointed to growing weakness in the US labour market, which is top of mind given that last month’s jobs report was unexpectedly bad."
In terms of the monthly non-farm payrolls report, Reid noted that Deutsche's US economists expect the addition of more than 100,000 jobs for August, following gains of over 73,000 a month in July, with the unemployment rate staying at 4.2%.
"However, the revisions will be of massive importance after last month saw the biggest downward revisions in over 5 years to the prior two months," he added. "As you will no doubt remember, this contributed to BLS chief Erika McEntaref losing her job hours after the release."
7.15am: FTSE 100 likely to open higher
The FTSE 100 is set to open higher again when trading gets underway, taking the blue-chip index back to where it started the week.
On the futures market, the London index has been called 21 points up, adding to Thursday's 39-point gain as retailers and financials lent their support.
US stocks also finished on the front foot on Thursday ahead of the highly anticipated US payrolls, due for release at 1:30pm UK time.
The Nasdaq added 1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Dow Jones was also up 0.8%.
In Asia, shares are mostly higher this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei is up 0.9%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong is 1% firmer, and the SSE Composite in Shanghai is 0.6% to the good. But Mumbai's BSE Sensex has shed 0.25%. In Australia, the ASX is 0.5% firmer.