- FTSE 100 falls 123 points to 9,552
- European and Asian markets tumble too
- Imperial Brands and ICG top FTSE risers after results
4.59pm: Stocks drop
The FTSE finished Tuesday’s session down 123 points at 9,552 amid concerns of overvaluations in the tech space and broader risk-off sentiment across global markets.
“Traders stayed risk-averse as worries over stretched tech valuations and upcoming Nvidia earnings dragged major tech names lower, while delayed economic releases and soft US labour data fuelled concerns the Fed may pause rate cuts,” IG senior technical analyst Axel Rudolph said.
“The S&P 500 and Dow were on track for their fourth straight losing session, down 3.5% and close to 5% respectively from last week's highs."
4.06pm: FTSE in a bad way, Ocado even worse
The FTSE has dropped around 150 points as we head into the final furlong of the day's trading.
Miners (Antofagasta, Anglo American), banks with a focus on Asia or investment banking (HSBC, Barclays, StanChart), airline operator IAG, ad group WPP and investor 3i Group are the top 10 fallers.
More miners, tech investors, banks and other financials are also prominent in the red.
On the FTSE 250, the biggest faller is Ocado Group, down 16.3% after US grocery client Kroger is shutting down three of the warehouses that rely on the online grocery supplier's technology.
Analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital says it is a "devastating blow" for Ocado, which is being "marginalised as most of its customer fulfilment centres (CFC) do not work economically in the USA or the mass-market first world in truth", which "means Ocado's previously spoken total addressable market (TAM) has been blitzed".
Kroger closing three sites is a "dreadful acclamation of what Morrison, Waitrose and others already knew: capital intensive, centralised fulfilment of food to a dispersed mass-market customer does not financially work".
Ocado expects to receive compensation for the early closure of these three sites of more than $250 million.
Kroger's new plans are to expand its relationships with different tech operators, DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats, and is making an impairment of $2.6 billion. Kroger will pivot its grocery e-commerce to its 'strong and growing store footprint' and use 'well-established third-party delivery providers', augmented by the few surviving automated fulfilment where applicable.
Black says: "We are big fans of British entrepreneurs, British firms, and especially successful British innovators. Alas, that cannot be wholly said of Ocado where the vision and aspiration was wonderful, as was the idealism with no shortage of brain power and masses of technobabble. Kroger, however, is a smelling salt moment for the Group and we worry further about the real value of what is left in this firm."
3.24pm: Cloudflare fixed
Cloudflare says it has fixed the problem, and affected websites such as X are back working again.
"A fix has been implemented and we believe the incident is now resolved," says a message on the Cloudflare service status page.
"We are continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal."
3pm: US sell-off enteres fourth day too
And New York has joined the selling, with initial losses larger than futures had been predicting.
The Dow Jones has dropped 514 points or 1.1% and the S&P 500 has slid 1.15%.
Larger losses are seen at the Nasdaq, which has slumped 1.8%.
The domestically focused Russell 2000 small cap index is calmer than yesterday, down 0.2% only.
2.27pm: Cloudflare flare-up
An outage at Cloudflare has been affecting hundreds of large and small websites today, bringing darkness to corners of the internet, including ChatGPT and X.com.
Cloudflare is the intermediary between millions of users and the web.
The San Fransisco company said it "is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers".
A recent message said it was "continuing to work on a fix for this issue", with an internal server error on its network blamed earlier.
"When internet infrastructure providers like Cloudflare go down, it doesn’t just disrupt sites that rely on it: it can pose serious privacy risks for users," says Rob Jardin, chief digital officer at cybersecurity firm NymVPN.
Due to Cloudflare's intermediary role, including through many VPN and crypto services, Jardin says this can "reveal the real IP addresses of people, creating opportunities for specific cyber attacks", exposing people’s DNS queries to surveillance and censorship systems.
"The infrastructure of the web is becoming intimately interwoven, and even momentary disruptions to centralised companies reverberate across the board.
"For the average internet user, an outage like this is more than just an annoyance; it's a moment of exposure. We saw the same vulnerabilities open up when Amazon Web Services went down last month."
Fadl Mantash, chief information security officer at Tribe Payments, says the Cloudflare outage "shows how vulnerable the digital economy has become".
"When a single upstream provider experiences issues, the impact doesn’t stay contained; it cascades across industries, touching everything from social media platforms to e-commerce checkouts and backend payment services."
He says payments are "particularly exposed", with the infrastructure behind a single transaction relying on a chain of cloud platforms, processors, third-party APIs, authentication tools, and card schemes.
"When any link in that chain fails, the entire journey can break. It’s the same pattern we saw during last year’s CrowdStrike incident: the initial issue wasn’t in payments, yet payments were among the most visible casualties."
2.05pm: US jobs data
More US jobs data, before New York stocks begin trading.
Weekly data from payrolls provider ADP shows that 2,500 job cuts per week on average in the four weeks to 1 November.
That's suggesting a slowing in the pace of jobs being shed by US companies, as last week's report saw 11,250 jobs cut per week for the period ending 25 October.
12.52pm: Japan carry trade
The FTSE is down 1.4% now, with the decline steadily worsening as the day wears on. We're back to where we were on 22 and 23 October now.
US stock futures are also pointing to a fourth day of selling. The Dow Jones is down 0.7% and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.5%, while those for the S&P 500 pointed to a 0.4% decline.
"Markets have been under intense pressure in recent days across the world," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com, "with the risk off sentiment also hurting cryptocurrencies, copper and commodity dollars. Even gold has been forced lower despite being a haven asset."
As with many analysts (see below), he points to nervousness ahead of Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report on Wednesday as a trigger behind the tech sector drop.
The crypto market and Japan may also be having more of an effect on other markets, Razaqzada says.
Bitcoin's plunge below several key levels in recent days is "putting pressure on leveraged positions in other markets like stocks and bullion".
This is also merging with intensifying concerns about growing debt problems in Japan.
"While the trigger behind the drop in risk appetite could be any of the above, I think the Japanese situation is where the real concern is," he says.
A "conflicting stance", where the government plans to implement a massive fiscal stimulus package while opposing monetary policy normalisation by the Bank of Japan, has led to a sharp decline in both the yen and bond prices, pushing Japanese yields higher to record or multi-year highs.
This matters for US stocks, Razaqzada says, as turbulence in Japanese markets may be "triggering a carry trade unwind, similar to what happened in the summer of 2024", where investors borrow funds from countries with very low interest rates like Japan, and invest them in higher-yielding assets such as stocks, gold, or cryptocurrencies denominated in stronger currencies like the US dollar.
"As Japanese yields climb, the cost of maintaining these trades rises. With yields now becoming uncomfortably high, traders are being forced to reduce leveraged positions across markets, including US stocks."
12.10pm: Wealth group up for sale
Evelyn Partners, one of the UK’s largest wealth managers, is up for sale with a price tag of around £2 billion to £2.5 billion.
Reports suggest that private equity owners Permira and Warburg Pincus last week invited bids, with a deadline of 10 December.
This comes after Evelyn Partners, the new name created after Tilney bought Bestinvest in 2022 and then merged with Smith & Williamson.
Last year, the latter professional services business was sold to Apax Partners for £700 million.
11.22am: Market worries combining
European markets are on track for their fourth straight day of declines, and US futures are pointing to the same, with cryptocurrencies also extending losses.
Why are markets tumbling?
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, sees bitcoin's decline as illustrative of the wider falls, "fuelled by concerns about overvaluations in the tech sector and broader risk-off sentiment that is causing a ripple effect across global markets".
At $91.4K, bitcoin is now below where it started 2025, after peaking in early October at an all-time high above $126k.
"This year was meant to be the year of the bitcoin bulls supported by a highly crypto friendly administration in the White House and Trump’s ‘less is more’ approach towards regulation," says Scholar.
"However, fears of an AI bubble and concerns about the market’s heavy dependence on a handful of tech giants have caused investors to dial back their exposure to speculative assets such as bitcoin.
"There’s a general sense of nervousness that has captured the market mood lately and bitcoin appears to be in the firing line. Plus with hints that the Fed might not cut rates next month, riskier non-yielding assets like bitcoin look less attractive in a higher interest rate environment."
Neil Wilson at Saxo says: "It looks like we have a broad liquidation event on our hands", with stocks selling off "in lockstep", AI-related stocks "in correction territory", while European and Asian equity markets fall "as economic worries and macro headwinds develop".
Gold, "the ultimate haven" has found some support at just over $4k after falling from its highs of last month, while silver is also testing support.
Worries about AI valuations, the Fed, the US economy and government reopening - "it’s all coming to the fore this week as Nvidia earnings create a bit of a cliff edge for sentiment towards AI in light of recent selling, while September payrolls data is finally released to set the Fed wheels in motion", Wilson says.
US data to watch today is factory orders, while a delayed weekly jobless release came out in the early hours, showing claims hit 232k in the week ending October 18.
10.49am: First is last
Bottom of the FTSE 350 is FirstGroup PLC (LSE:FGP) as the shares dropped 12% to a six-month low as the transport group reported solid interim results but flagged a transitional period and free cash outflow.
Adjusted revenue rose 30% in the six months to 27 September 2025, supported by growth in bus operations, contributions from First Bus London, and progress in First Rail services.
Broker Peel Hunt said adjusted operating profit beat forecasts, driven by stronger rail performance, though bus earnings came in slightly below expectations.
"Guidance for FY26 is unchanged, other than net debt, which was higher than we expected at the end of September, largely due to M&A and bus investment, and which the group now expects to be £125-135 million at year-end (previously £120-130 million).
"Guidance for FY27 is to at least maintain EPS, which may be a little below our forecasts."
9.48am: Energy price cap to fall, with Budget changes expected
The Ofgem energy price cap is expected to fall 1% in January for the average household, according to Cornwall Insight, the respected energy forecasting group.
The default price cap for the January to March period is predicted to be £1,733 per year, for a typical household on a dual-fuel contract, down £22 from the current price cap of £1,755 per year due to slightly lower wholesale prices.
This includes the expected introduction of the new Nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB) levy, where the government is generating some funds to pay for new nuclear power stations, adding around £10 a year.
There may be changes that affect energy bills in the Budget later this month, with calls for the Chancellor to ease upward pressure on bills through adjustments to levies, removal of VAT, introduction of social tariffs or direct support to vulnerable households, potentially lowering the January cap and influencing future costs.
Otherwise, Cornwall Insight said, from April, bills are likely to jump due to rising charges for electricity transmission and gas distribution networks.
"This is likely to be an enduring trend," the firm said, "with wholesale energy prices, once the dominant driver of bills, forecast to drop to less than 40% of the cap and remain below that threshold for the rest of the decade."
9.16am: European markets in selling mode
After the first hour and a bit of trading, the Footsie is down 0.8%, which is one of the better performances among European markets.
The German DAX and France's CAC 40 are both down 1.3%, while in Madrid and Milan the benchmarks are down 1.4% and 1.7%.
Helping support the London index, ICG PLC (LSE:ICG), the alternative asset manager, is up almost 10% on the back of interim results that are significantly ahead of consensus expectations, plus a strategic partnership with Amundi.
The new French partner will acquire a non-dilutive 9.9% economic interest in ICG, with the partnership aimed at developing private markets products managed by ICG and distributed by Amundi to wealthy investors.
Imperial Brands PLC (LSE:IMB) is up 2.3% after its results, with rival BAT also one of the 12 London blue-chips in positive territory.
The largest company in the index, AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN), is another one, up 1.7%.
8.31am: Market moves
Losses for the S&P 500 last night took the index below what's often viewed as an important technical threshold for the first time in 139 trading sessions, points out Jim Reid, macro strategist at Deutsche Bank, talking about the index's 50-day moving average.
"That was the longest such run since 2007," he says, adding that AI weakness was "a key driver" that sent the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 1.55% lower, while also being a day of broad weakness, with 407 decliners within the S&P 500, the most in five weeks.
The small cap Russell 2000 (down 2%) and the equal-weighted S&P 500 (down 1.3%) both fell to their lowest levels since August, he also points out, while the Mag 7 group had a better day mostly thanks to Alphabet rising 3% on news that Berkshire Hathaway took a stake in the company last quarter.
"In addition to the AI concerns, the risk-off tone was reinforced by the latest signals from the Fed, as investors continued to price out the likelihood of a December rate cut. Futures now imply just a 41% probability, down from 43% on Friday – with the highest rate priced for the December contract since late August."
Reid also flags that the sell-off in Asia, led by Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei, both down around 3%.
"Japanese long-bonds continue to sell-off as markets fear a larger-than-expected supplementary budget later this week from the new Takaichi administration."
8.15am: FTSE plunges at open
The FTSE 100 plunged over 107 points in the first trades of the day, but has already seen those losses pared somewhat, down 87 points to 9,588, taking the index back to where it was three weeks ago.
Miners are leading the slide, with precious metals diggers Fresnillo and Endeavour down 6% and 3.7% as gold and silver take another small step back from recent highs.
Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore are all down over 3%, with Rio Tinto down 2%.
Financials, including Schroders, Barclays and HSBC, and oil giants Shell and BP are also weighing.
Meanwnile, Bitcoin has also plunged to its lowest level in seven months as investors shy away from risk, dipping below $90k overnight and back above that now, while still down 5.2% over the past 24hrs.
7.57am: CMA probes launched
The UK competition watchdog has launched enforcement action against eight companies, including Viagogo, StubHub, AA and BSM driving schools, Marks Electrical Group PLC (AIM:MRK) and Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), over misleading prices and illegal pressure selling online.
A major consumer protection initiative was launched by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) using new powers granted by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act that was passed into law last year.
The regulator has opened investigations into the eight firms, which also includes Viagogo parent StubHub, Appliances Direct and Gold’s Gym, and focused on potential breaches such as drip pricing, misleading countdown timers, and default opt-in charges.
The CMA has also sent advisory letters to 100 firms across 14 sectors, warning them to review their practices. These include companies in travel, ticketing, retail, fitness, and food delivery.
7.40am: No surprises with Imperial numbers
Imperial Brands PLC's (LSE:IMB) new chief executive, Lukas Paravicini, who started on 1 October, reports his first set of final results, including an increased £1.45 billion share buyback and dividend up 4.5%.
But these were already known thanks to an update last month, while the long-term strategy was shared under his predecessor back in March.
Paravicini said: “Our consistently strong operational and financial delivery provides a firm platform on which to build as we embark on the next phase of our strategy."
Our performance in FY25 adds to our track record of consistent growth, demonstrating the sustainability of our tobacco business and the exciting growth opportunities in next generation products.”
He added: "During the next strategic period, we will evolve the distinctive challenger approach which has underpinned our recent success. This means we will continue to invest in consumer insights, innovation and marketing capabilities. We will also continue to make deliberate, focused choices about which opportunities we pursue, and develop a simpler, more efficient and more agile organisation."
7.15am: FTSE set to plunge as global sell-off deepens
The FTSE 100 is predicted to plummet at the open on Tuesday.
A 135-point plunge is being called on the futures market for the London index, more of a scream than yesterday's whimper when the index fell 22.9 points to close at 9,675.43.
Overnight on Wall Street, US stocks extended a three-day slide as investors grew uneasy about the Federal Reserve’s next move and braced for a pivotal week of economic and tech-sector news.
The Dow Jones fell 1.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.9% and the Nasdaq slipped 0.8%.
Asian markets are bathed in red this morning, with Japan's Nikkei plunging 3.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng diving 2.1%.
Here's market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote with a summary of why: "All of a sudden, economic data pointing to slowing economies and rising debt is making investors increasingly uncomfortable — and with good reason.
Ozkardeskaya notes that Japan’s economy printed its first quarterly contraction in six quarters; while China’s property crisis lingers, while consumer spending remains weak and a 25% drop in shipments to the US "is difficult to replace in the short run"; European growth "continues to limp along — military-spending boosts don’t yet show up in headline GDP", and even Switzerland is not immune, with a contraction in growth and rare strikes by public sector workers.
"The good news is, all of the economic angst doesn’t automatically translate into poor investor sentiment. Markets run on different vibes — and slowing fundamentals don’t always spook risk appetite," she says.
"The bad news is that some of the more bullish vibes — AI enthusiasm, massive government stimulus, dovish central-bank expectations — are starting to fade."