- FTSE 100 rises 82 points to 9,691
- Gilts becalmed after the Budget
- OBR accidentally releases Budget forecasts early
- Bookies and spread-betters lead the way after tax escape
- IPO boost and ISA move designed for City
- ...but dividend tax hike muddies message
4.52pm: A winning day
The FTSE 100 finished Wednesday’s session on the front foot, adding 82 points at 9,691 following the release of the autumn budget.
According to Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG, the budget delivers “political compromise over economic reform, offering short-term stimulus, wider fiscal headroom and no fresh inflation risks, but leaving weak growth, low confidence and long-term fiscal pressures largely unresolved.”
“Unlike last year’s NICs move, nothing in the autumn budget is obviously inflationary, preserving the Bank of England’s scope to keep cutting rates,” Rudolph said.
“Financial markets reacted with a fall in UK yields, an appreciation of the pound sterling and a higher FTSE 100 - though the back-loaded consolidation remains a clear risk. The most likely outcome is growth beating forecasts as inflation eases and rates fall, but fiscal uncertainty still hangs over the medium-term outlook."
4.14pm: FTSE crosses back above milestone
The FTSE is back above the 9,700 milestone again, having slumped below there almost two weeks ago.
London's blue-chip index is up almost 1% and the more domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250, which should be more sensitive to the Budget, is up 238 points or 1.1% at 21,856.
Topping the blue-chip leaderboard are bookmaker Entain, retailer Marks & Spencer, gold miner Endeavour and wealth manager St James's Place, all up over 4%.
Then there's precious miner Fresnillo, several other financial and banks, led by Lloyds, Barclays, Phoenix Group, Stan Chart and NatWest.
Losers are fronted by housebuilder Berkeley, drugmaker Hikma, retailer Kingfisher and caterer Compass.
Among the mid-caps, online broker IG Group is top of the list, along with bingo hall operator Rank Group, both up over 10% on the back of the Budget.
Ceres Power jumped 9.4% after a bullish note from UBS, which highlighted strengthening licence momentum, expanding access to the US market and improving cost competitiveness for its solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology.
Oxford Nanopore and Harbour Energy were bottom of the list, down 4.9% and 3.7%.
The latter was likely to reflect the Chancellor not scrapping the windfall tax on the oil & gas sector. However, the government said it is easing new oil and gas production on or near existing fields.
3.54pm: Budget doesn't change attraction of UK as an equity market much
Caroline Shaw, a portfolio manager at Fidelity International, says Rachel Reeves delivered a "bits and pieces" budget that "doesn’t materially change the UK macro outlook".
The bond market and Bank of England are placated by more fiscal headroom and measures aimed at reducing inflation, she says, but the outlook for UK equities "is less clear cut".
"Earnings remain fairly uninspiring, and the announcements in today's budget aren’t enough to improve growth meaningfully.
"That said, the UK market still trades at a discount, balance sheets are robust, and buyback prospects are decent, while any sterling weakness should provide support for multinational large caps.
"Given the challenging landscape of policy adjustments and fiscal pressures, we prefer to gain UK equity exposure through active management to take advantage of stock selection opportunities and dispersion between sectors.
"Overall, we believe the most compelling opportunities in equity markets are found elsewhere, particularly in emerging markets such as China and India."
3.48am: ING analysis of Budget
The pound has risen 0.4% to $1.3214 and gilt yields are lower following the Budget.
But the lack of upfront tax hikes complicates the Bank of England’s efforts to cut interest rates, even if a December move remains likely, says James Smith, ING economist.
He still thinks a rate cut next month is "likely", noting that cuts to energy bills that will slightly lower headline inflation in 2026, "helpful at a time when the Bank’s hawks are worried that high rates of inflation today could fuel inflation expectations".
He expects three more cuts from the BoE, with one in December and two more next year. "That view hasn’t changed as a result of the Budget."
The million-pound question now, says Smith, is whether the Chancellor will need to come back for more tax hikes in 2026, as she has greater buffer and from 2026 will be able to run a 0.5% current budget deficit by the end of the forecast horizon, adding another £17 billion to fiscal headroom.
Yet public finances remain precarious, he says, with gilt issuance projected to remain close to or above £300 billion for each of the next three years, which "may well require a fresh conversation about tax" and a need to touch one of the three major tax levers.
With the 10yr gilt yields 4-5 basis points lower in the aftermath, "investors seem reasonably content with the Chancellor’s efforts to contain the government’s debt", Smith says.
Part of the nudge lower in Gilt yields may also be due to investors’ positioning going into today, given there was a non-negligible risk that the Budget would fail to show credibility. For now there is some relief, but as mentioned above, we may very well face more uncertainty again in the near future.
"Perhaps one of the biggest turnarounds today has been the FTSE 100. This is up close to 1% from intraday lows led by financials.
"The two potential positives here are the Chancellor going ahead with plans to encourage ISAs to be used for investment purposes from 2027 onwards and the rumoured stamp duty reserve tax exemptions for UK listings over the next three years.
"These moves will be welcomed by the City, but a more durable rally in UK equities will surely hang on UK growth prospects – which still look unspectacular."
3.20pm: IPO and ISA changes welcomed but 'baby steps'
IPO and cash ISA measures welcomed in the City.
The stamp duty holiday on initial public offerings (IPOs) announced in today’s Budget is "a welcome baby step towards reviving UK listings, but it must be part of a broader plan to phase this tax out altogether," says Richard Stone, chief executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).
Speaking up for the investment company sector that he represents, Stone says the Chancellor "should have been bolder in this first step and abolished it permanently on shares of investment trusts as well".
Currently, investment trusts pay stamp duty when they invest in UK shares, so when charging it to their investors it is "a form of double taxation that should be stopped", he says.
Furthermore, stamp duty is charged on investment trust shares but not on the units of open-ended funds.
"Taxation should not create competitive advantages or disadvantages in this way. Abolishing stamp duty on investment trusts would level the playing field and remove the bias in favour of overseas equities which discourages investment in the London market," he says.
“We have long called for the abolition of stamp duty. Another step towards full abolition would be to get rid of stamp duty on shares purchased within ISAs and pensions. This would incentivise pension funds to hold more UK shares and encourage individuals to start investing in the UK in their stocks and shares ISAs.”
As for cutting the cash ISA limit, he says it is "a milestone towards creating a nation of investors."
"Combined with the planned advertising campaign, changes to risk warnings and the FCA’s targeted support initiative, it will all help people make better long-term investment decisions."
2.59pm: US stocks open higher
Wall Street opened higher, with the Nasdaq leading the charge, up 0.7%, followed by the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both up 0.6%.
Investors are watching economic data due later this morning, including weekly jobless claims and September durable-goods orders, while the Fed’s Beige Book on economic conditions will be released later this afternoon.
Dell was one of the top risers up 4.5%, after raising its revenue guidance, while HP Enterprise opened lower after warning that rising memory-chip costs and a 10% workforce reduction will weigh on results.
2.40pm: Personal finance angles
The Budget is often complex, and some decisions will be "hard to swallow and others celebrated", says Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts.
She says the cut to the cash ISA limit from £20,000 to £12,000 from April 2027 "is intended to push savers to consider investing, but it will take a lot of educational work to shift the culture of investing in the UK".
The government acknowledged that those later in life want more risk-free savings, so the limit is unchanges for over-65s.
She says the cash ISA limit cut could have repercussions mutuals like Nationwide, who use ISA deposits as a source of funding, so it is worth watching mortgage rates as we near 2027.
"There will be a greater argument for investing in a stocks and shares ISA moving forward, based on the top rate deals."
But she says one of the most fundamental reasons why savers do not want to invest is "down to trust" as many savers "are risk-averse and do not feel comfortable putting their hard-earned cash into a product that puts it at risk".
Improving financial education will be "a big part of making consumers feel more informed and empowered to invest," but will take time.
The mansion tax was confirmed, with a yearly levy of £2,500 on properties worth more than £2 million, rising to £7,500 on properties worth more than £5 million.
"There is a worry this move could discourage homeowners from improving their homes, to keep the value of a home from rising above the £2 million threshold," she says, though Reeves said the measure would hit less than 1% of homes on the market.
A freeze on tax thresholds, and with unused pension pots falling under inheritance tax from April 2027 might lead to pensioners reducing the value of their estate, she says.
"A lifetime mortgage could be an option for borrowers to use some wealth from their home, and it can help them support their retirement plans."
2.07pm: Economic analysis: some good points, some bad
Some reactions from economists.
The team at Pantheon Macroeconomics' take is that the Budget delivers a half a percentage point cut to headline inflation by the midway through 2026, "but boosts inflation three years ahead", with back-ended fiscal consolidation and tax hikes that have "uncertain revenues".
"We are surprised that gilt yields have fallen slightly in response, albeit yields are considerably higher than before the Chancellor ditched plans to raise income tax earlier in November."
Lower near-term inflation means a December BoE rate cut is "nailed on", they add, with no more cuts after December.
They think the fiscal forecasts lack credibility as: "First, the tax hikes are back-loaded—small in 2026/27 but building by 2029/30—because the biggest revenue-raising measure, freezing the earnings threshold at which income tax is paid for another two years, kicks in only from 2028/20. Second, the tax hikes have uncertain revenue, are distortionary, and are at risk of backtracking because some will face substantial pushback. Third, the Chancellor announced fiscal giveaways in the near-term."
The Pantheon team say the "fiscal outlook remains perilous", as some of the fiscal savings "will fail to materialise, the government seems to lack the political power to push through measures necessary to stabilise the fiscal ship in the near-term, and we think defence spending will place further pressure on the sums.
"The path of least resistance will continue to be to borrow more in the short-term and backload corrective action, until the bond market forces a change. Accordingly, we expect gilt yields to remain elevated."
Sanjay Raja, Deutsche Bank’s chief UK economist, says the Budget was the third-largest tax-raising Budget since 2010.
"Put simply, while this year's Budget paled in comparison to the Chancellor's spending announcements from 2024, tax raising measures were indeed historic."
Nearly £30 billion in taxes were announced, with the extension of the fiscal drag and tapering of pensions and employee salary sacrifice schemes making up the bulk of the tax raising measures.
"Increases in property tax, gambling tax, and a tax on electric vehicles were also announced. But tax hikes were offset by spending rises elsewhere, which amounted to £12 billion."
Despite downgrades on the OBR productivity forecasts, the Chancellor was left with larger headroom than anyone expected, offset by stronger earnings growth and equity prices.
"Put simply, the OBR projections were far better than we expected, with the impact of the productivity downgrade on the borrowing outlook far less than we and others anticipated. A smaller hit to the fiscal headroom therefore required a smaller amount of fiscal consolidation."
He agrees that the fiscal consolidation is "heavily backloaded", with only 47% of tax raising measures coming through before 2029/30.
The UK budget deficit is expected to drop from 4.5% of GDP to 3.5% next fiscal year. And it is expected to drop to just under 2% of GDP by the end of the decade.
He says "a big surprise" was the Chancellor more than doubling her fiscal headroom, from around £10 billion in the spring to just under £22 billion, while the fiscal buffer rose from just over £15 billion to £24.4 billion.
He calls it a "cost-of-living Budget", with policies projected to reduce CPI by 0.4pp in 2026/27, reflected by a partial extension of the fuel duty freeze, reducing green levies, and a one-year freeze to rail fares.
Pluses: "The good news from a market perspective will be the more than doubling of the Chancellor’s fiscal headroom.... Cost of living measures will also deliver a modest but meaningful dampening of inflation... borrowing remains broadly on track...and the Government’s central government net cash requirement looks slightly lower than we projected over the next four fiscal years."
Minuses: "Many of the consolidation efforts are backloaded – raising questions around both the credibility of such fiscal tightening and whether they will be implemented ahead of the next general election."
He feels the Budget was not strong enough though to compensate for political risks that "remain rife" with local elections on the horizon.
"To be sure, we expect fiscal policy to remain a prominent theme heading into 2026. And the focus will now inevitably turn to the aftermath of the Autumn Budget."
1.42pm: Budget over, let the responses begin
Reeves has finished her speech. Now for the deluge of reactions into my inbox.
A little while before this, Reeves confirmed the removal of the two-child benefit limit from April.
She says this is fully costed and fully funded, thanks to the clampdown on tax avoidance, fraud and error in the welfare system and the new gambling taxes.
There was also an announcement on gambling a short while before that.
Remote gambling duty is rising to 40%, up from 21%, raising £1.1 billion according to the earlier OBR leak.
The chancellor says there will be no changes to in-person gambling or horse racing levies. Shares in William Hill owner Evoke PLC (LSE:EVOK) are down 10%, while Entain and Flutter are up 4.5%.
Remote gaming duty is associated with the highest rate of harm, she says.
And the duty on bingo will be abolished, she says. Good news for Rank Group PLC (LSE:RNK), where shares are up 10%.
In a technical note, the OBR says spread betting will be excluded from the UK betting duty changes, likely limiting market disruption in retail trading platforms and financial betting services. IG Group Holdings Plc (LSE:IGG) is up 9.2% on that.
And Reeves also stressed that she is not raising income tax, national insurance or VAT, in case anyone was not paying full attention amidst all the leaks and U-turns, and U-turns on U-turns.
1.25pm: Pensions, wealth tax, mansion tax, salary sacrifice
The pound has climbed back up to where it was earlier, while gilt yields have eased to below where they started the day.
In the House of Commons, Reeves says she is "asking everyone to make a tax contribution".
People only in receipt of basic or new state pension will not have to pay small amounts of income tax, she says.
She is increasing the basic and higher rate of property, savings and dividend income by 2 percentage poiunts, and the higher rate on property and savings income by 2 percentage points.
Even afteer these 90% of taxpayers will still pay no tax at all on their savings.
This is "narrowing the gap between the tax on income from assets and the tax on income from work". She says "a fair society is one where the wealthiest pay their shares," with reforms last year raising £8 billion.
She tweaks the inheritance tax rules to allow transfer of relief allowance between spouses.
From 2028, a mansion tax called the 'high value council tax surcharge', will be introduced in England, an annual £2,500 charge for properties worth more than £2 million, rising to £7,500 for properties worth £5 million and over. It will raise over £300 million by 2031 and will be charged on the top 1% of properties.
Tax relief costs billions a year, but many no longer serve their original purpose, says Reeves.
She says salary sacrifice for pensions is being addressed, as it has ballooned, with the greatest benefit going to higher earners while those on lower wages are not benefitting.
A £2,000 cap on salary sacrifice in pensions is being introduced. It’s a pragmatic step—those on middle incomes can continue to use salary sacrifice without paying any more tax than they do now.
Capital gains tax receipts are seen rising to £30 billion by 2030 from £14 billion now.
CGT tax relief for the sale of businesses to employee ownership trusts will fall to 50% from 100%.
12.58pm: OBR to report once a year
Reeves says she is going to tell the OBR to assess the fiscal rules just once a year, not twice a year as it does currently.
She also says a fraud crackdown reforms will raise £10 billion by 2030.
The government will also find £4.9B in public spending efficiencies by 2031.
12.43pm: ISAs and VCTs
The ISA scheme will be reformed from April 2027, Reeves says.
The allowance will be kept at £20,000, but £8,000 of it will be designated exclusively for investment, not cash.
With some of the proposed changes having been criticised, the Chancellor says people aged over 65 will be able to keep the full cash allowance.
She will widen eligibility and expand the EIS and VCT schemes, ie improving incentives for entrepreneurs. The schemes will be expanded to apply beyond the start-up stage.
Consultation to be launched with founders and investors on how the tax system can better support scale-ups and entrepreneurs. "If you build here, Britain will back you," Reeves says.
12.37pm: Budget begins
Rachel Reeves starts by criticising the OBR for the leak on its website, though she gets jeers as her department has pretty much leaked most of it anyway in recent weeks.
She says it is "deeply disappointing" and notes that the OBR has already made a statement taking "full responsibility" for the error.
She then goes on to summarise what the government has been up so since it won the election last year.
"We made these choices as people demanded change, investment not cuts."
12.26pm: OBR numbers released early
Ahead of the Budget, the OBR's official economic forecasts seem to have been accidentally published early (or leaked).
The GBP/USD jumped but is now down 0.2% at 1.3135. Gilts moved too, with the 2yr and 10yr yields both falling then rising, both up around 4bps.
The forecasts reportedly showed tax rises of £26.1 billion by 2029-30, and growth of 1.5% over the next five years.
OBR said in a post that a link to its economic and fiscal outlook document "went live on our website too early this morning. It has been removed. We apologise for this technical error and have initiated an investigation into how this happened."
A link to our Economic and fiscal outlook document went live on our website too early this morning. It has been removed.
We apologise for this technical error and have initiated an investigation into how this happened.
We will be reporting to our Oversight Board, the Treasury,…
— Office for Budget Responsibility (@OBR_UK) November 26, 2025
Neil Wilson at Saxo says the OBR revealed higher near-term borrowing and heavy reliance on long-term tax hikes.
Borrowing will rise £6 billion next year, but is forecast to fall £15 billion by 2029–30, largely through delayed tax rises totalling £26 billion.
Key measures include freezing tax thresholds, taxing pension contributions, and new charges on EVs.
Despite an expanded £21.7 billion fiscal buffer, growth forecasts are weaker, inflation is higher, and debt is expected to peak at 97% of GDP.
The tax burden will hit a record 38.3% of GDP by 2030-31.
Wilson says increased borrowing next year and fall by 2029-30 is "the key to why markets might see this Budget as lacking credibility".
Reeves' fiscal buffer increased to £21.7 billion from £9.9 billion as a result, "but who cares about the buffer if the assumptions are not credible", says Wilson.
Notable changes included in the OBR report include the removal of the two-child limit, freezing of tax thresholds (raising £8 billion in 2029-30), charging National Insurance on salary-sacrificed pension contributions (raising £4.7 billion) and increasing tax rates on dividends, property and savings income by 2 percentage points (raising £2.1 billion).
Other measures include a new mileage-based charge on electric and plug-in hybrid cars from April 2028 at around half the fuel duty rate paid by drivers of petrol cars (raising £1.4 billion); a reduction to writing down allowances in corporation tax (£1.5 billion); reforms to gambling taxation (£1.1 billion); changes to capital gains tax reliefs on employee ownership trusts (£0.9 billion).
12.07pm: European markets up, Wall Street futures mixed
With around half an hour to go before Rachel Reeves delivers her Budget, the FTSE 100 is up 34 points or 0.35%.
Across in mainland Europe, Germany's DAX is up 0.4%, while France's CAC and Spain's IBEX are up 0.5%.
US futures are mixed. Those for the Dow Jones are up 0.5%, the S&P 500 is flat, while the Nasdaq is seen falling 0.4%.
Last night, Wall Street saw gains for a third straight session as Google parent Alphabet hit a fresh all-time high, up over 10% since the end of last week, helped by reports that Meta Platforms is considering using Google’s in-house chips, known as tensor processing units, in its data centres.
"This gave investors yet another reason to sell Nvidia," says market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation, with the chip designer slumping 7% to below $170 for the first time since mid-September at one stage yesterday, before recovering to a loss of less than 3%.
Nvidia is down 19% from its all-time closing high of $210 from the end of last month, while AMD and Super Micro Computer also fell.
US stock index futures are responding to more dovish comments from Federal Reserve members, says Morrison, with the probability of a rate cut on 10 December rising to 85% from 30% this time last week.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also suggested that President Trump may announce his preferred candidate as the new Chair of the Fed within the next four weeks, ahead of Jerome Powell second term ending in May.
11.41am: OBR forecasts are key
The "shape" of new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) are more important than the end destination, says Berenberg economist Andrew Wishart.
While he expects the government will "undoubtedly" meet its fiscal targets in the OBR forecast released alongside the Budget, he said sovereign bond investors "may still respond negatively".
If Reeves relies on fiscal drag (ie freezing of tax thresholds) to raise additional revenue in future years, this would mean that near-term government borrowing would likely be higher than previously forecast.
"For the government to retain fiscal credibility it must deliver a material reduction in the fiscal deficit over the next two years, in our view," says Wishart.
"This would also strengthen the argument for the Bank of England (BoE) to lower interest rates further, to offset the negative demand impulse from fiscal policy."
Following our written response to the Budget, Berenberg invites you to join us for a webinar at 16:30 UKT in which we will set out the economic implications of the Budget and take client questions. You can register here.
11.09am: Budget checklist
In a little over two hours we will end "one of the most speculative Budgets in recent memory", says market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB, who provides Budget checklist.
"You might ask, is there anything that we don’t know about this Budget," she says, as stories have already been leaked or pre-announced about the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, that income taxes won’t rise directly, that property taxes and a potential mansion tax will be included, that banks won’t see their taxes go up and the latest being an announcement that the national minimum wage will rise 4.1%, including bigger increases for teenage workers.
"The fact that this hike in the minimum wage comes at a time when the unemployment rate is rising and AI is threatening many entry level jobs seems lost on the Chancellor," says Brooks.
The big question at the heart of this Budget is how big the fiscal hole will be, so we await this detail from the OBR in the opening few minutes of the speech.
Reeves and Starmer's decision to abandon plans to hike income tax suggests that this could be around £20 billion, says Brooks, although the Chancellor will need to raise government revenue by more to ensure that she has enough fiscal headroom to deal with any unexpected crises in the coming years.
"The headroom is a bit like a rainy-day fund, except the way that the government has handled this Budget could mean that they will need to pray very hard for no rain in the coming years."
The biggest revenue generator in this Budget is expected to be the freezing of tax thresholds, meaning more workers will get dragged into higher tax bands without income tax rates being hiked, seen by Brooks as "a nasty little stealth tax".
How the bond market reacts will be "crucial" to how the Budget is perceived by investors, says Brooks.
"Ultimately, the bond market wants to see cuts in government spending and revenue generators that do not stoke inflation. However, a higher than inflation rise in the national living wage, along with large spending increases may leave the bond market disappointed."
While gilt yields softened in October, the bond market is "unlikely to tolerate any increase in borrowing in this Budget, or any move from the Chancellor to distance herself from her own fiscal rules", and Reeves' fiscal headroom "needs to be higher than the £10 billion last year", with Brooks suggesting a figure of at least £15 billion could be warmly received by the bond market.
Also, the bond market will react if the Budget is seen as preventing the Bank of England from resuming interest rate cuts from next month.
"This is why the chancellor is trying to put upward pressure on the lowest wages, while dragging moderate to higher income workers into higher tax rates."
But equally, a no-growth Budget "could sink the pound", so the OBR’s GDP forecasts will also be scrutinised to see the trajectory of the UK economy.
"If the outlook is weak, then the market reaction could be brutal, and the pound may come under downward pressure."
10.41am: Finer details
Most of the Budget attention will be on the big tax-raising measures, but tax expert Dan Neidle at Tax Policy Associates says there "an unusual number" of important other items that, while appearing technical, "will impact everyone from billionaire non-doms to the poorest people in the country".
None of these items are likely to be mentioned in the Budget speech, he says, but will be buried somewhere in the mountains of paper that accompanies it.
The six are: keeping more non-doms; solving the small company tax gap mystery; clamping down on promoters of tax avoidance; umbrella companies; HMRC penalties; the impact on the poor; and a loan charge review. Read more on his blog.
10.29am: Small cap movers
Versarien PLC shares sank 38% after the company said a potential buyer had pulled out of a deal to acquire its remaining assets. Read more
Tanfield Group climbed 7% after the company reported another favourable ruling in its long-running legal battle over the value of its stake in Snorkel, the aerial work platform manufacturer. Read more
Shares in 88 Energy Ltd gained about 5% to 1.1p after the company mapped out its 2026 production testing plans for Project Phoenix on Alaska’s North Slope. Read more
Arrow Exploration Corp shares rose about 4% to 11.22p after the company announced encouraging results from the Mateguafa 6 appraisal well on the Tapir Block in Colombia, where it owns a 50% beneficial interest. Read more
Strix Group shares dropped about 4% to 34p, leaving them down 28% since January, after the kettle-safety specialist cautioned that trading remains patchy and confirmed its long-serving chief executive will step down next year. Read more
Spectra Systems shares moved on the front foot in Wednesday's trade, after landing a five-year maintenance contract covering a customer's existing sensor suite as well as new generation sensors. Read more
10.06am: US tech updates
There were some more US earnings overnight worth paying attention to, perhaps.
Dell Technologies gave Wall Street a clearer picture of what the AI hardware boom looks like from inside a very traditional PC-and-servers company.
And investors and analysts liked what they saw with the shares jumping 4% after hours, with Dell lifting its full-year sales and adjusted profit guidance.
The big story is not laptops but servers, with Dell expecting AI-focused systems to generate about $25 billion in revenue this year, with shipments more than doubling compared with last year.
Management says the AI wave is building in the second half of the year as projects move from experiments into full-scale deployments.
Then there was Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which is preparing to axe 4,000-6,000 jobs worldwide by 2028 as part of a plan to simplify the business and use more AI in how it designs products, manages operations and supports customers.
Chief executive Enrique Lores said teams working on product development, internal processes and customer support will feel the impact, with the initiative expected to generate about $1 billion in annualised savings over three years.
There has also been news from Elon Musk, who says Tesla will roughly double the number of robotaxis operating in Austin next month, marking the latest step in the company’s push to scale up its self-driving service.
9.17am: (Another) Budget preview from Rachel Reeves
Bright and early this morning, Rachel Reeves and her Treasury team put out a video on social media to preview the Budget.
In it, she pledges to "take action to cut our debt and borrowing, by keeping a tight grip on the country’s finances".
She doubles down on her message from her speech to her colleagues on the left of the party that she will not increase spending without increasing tax, saying that there is "nothing progressive, nothing fair, about spending one in every 10 pounds of government spending just servicing the national debt".
A Budget that cuts waiting lists, that cuts our debt and borrowing, and cuts the cost of living.
That is my commitment to you. pic.twitter.com/bvqMciKyy5
— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) November 26, 2025
Also, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last night that there would be an increase in the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage from next April.
"The cost of living is the number one issue people are facing, with too many struggling to make ends meet. I am determined to tackle it," he said in a social media post.
8.57am: Elementis adds some natural elements
Elementis plc (LSE:ELM), the FTSE 250-listed chemicals group, has agreed to buy a UK-based specialist producer of natural products that create viscosity in cosmetic and skincare creams.
Alchemy Ingredients, based in Marlow, Bucks, is to be bought for an enterprise value of approximately £17 million as Elementis looks to strengthen its position in the personal care sector.
Elementis boss Luc van Ravenstein says: "The business opens exciting opportunities to expand our skincare portfolio, where the trend toward natural ingredients and enhanced sensory benefits continues to accelerate."
8.32am: Auction Tech bid up
Auction Technology Group PLC (LSE:ATG) shares are up about 5% after the company posted full-year results that came in slightly ahead of expectations, despite a hefty accounting charge that pushed it deep into the red.
The operator of online auction and list-price marketplaces said growth was led by its Arts and Antiques segment, which includes Chairish, the US marketplace it bought for $85 million in August.
Chief executive John-Paul Savant said the group had made “critical strategic progress”, even if financial outcomes had fallen short of internal hopes. He said ATG remained focused on expanding supply, broadening its buyer base and improving the marketplace experience to drive future revenue.
8.15am: FTSE 100 opens higher, led by miners
The FTSE 100 has opened up 22 points at 9,632, led by precious metals miners and tech investment funds.
Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES) and Endeavour Mining PLC (LSE:EDV) are up 3.3% and 2.7% as gold climbs 0.85% to almost a two-week high at $4165 an ounce and silver 1.3% to back above $52/oz.
Polar Capital Technology Trust is next, up 2%, after gains for many of its main portfolio holdings compensated for a fall in Nvidia. Fellow tech investor Scottish Mortgage, which does not have as much exposure to the Mag 7, is up 0.9%.
7.59am: Mobico warns of low-end profits
National Express owner Mobico Group PLC (LSE:MCG) has warned that it is on course for the lower end of its full-year profit guidance but, under a new executive chair, says it is focused on strengthening its balance sheet, cutting costs and an ongoing review of non-core operations.
Adjusted operating profit for 2025 are now expected to come in towards the lower end of its £180 million to £195 million guidance, reflecting competitive conditions for its core UK coach business and soft demand in UK buses.
"We continue to focus on simplifying and strengthening the group, taking decisive actions to improve operational and financial performance," said group executive chair Phil White, who took over after previous CEO Ignacio Garat stepped down in April.
7.44am: Pets at Home new interim boss has been busy
Pets at Home Group PLC (LSE:PETS) has launched a four-part turnaround strategy for its retail division alongside its interim results, following the sudden exit of CEO Lyssa McGowan that accompanied a profit warning in September.
Retail underlying profit before tax fell 84.1% to £3.5 million in the first half, against a broadly flat market, as revenue edged up 0.7% to £1.06 billion, driven by a 6.7% increase in veterinary sales, while retail revenue declined 2.3%.
Interim executive chair Ian Burke has set out plans to stabilise performance, saying: "Stepping into the role as Interim CEO 10 weeks ago, I set out with a clear agenda – to establish a firm grip on the issues facing our retail business, whilst maintaining the positive results we're seeing in areas such as vets."
He says he had visited over 100 pet care centres and engaged with colleagues at all levels "to establish where the challenges are isolated, resulting in the implementation of a retail turnaround plan with four clear priorities of product, price, execution and cost".
7.27am: What's boosting markets?
US stock market sentiment was turned around yesterday despite a near-3% fall for Nvidia.
This was largely on dovish Federal Reserve hopes, as Treasury yields fell to a four-week low, following weak consumer confidence and payrolls data, as well as speculation about who may be the next Fed chair, which combined to fuel rate cut expectations.
Henry Allen, macro strategist at Deutsche Bank, says European markets did well as headlines suggested further progress on the Ukraine peace talks.
The probability of a December cut was up to 82% by the close, which is the most since Fed chief Jerome Powell said at the October FOMC meeting that a December cut was “not a foregone conclusion”.
"That proved supportive for risk assets, which have been clearly trading around the Fed lately," says Allen.
"Speaking of the Fed, Bloomberg also reported yesterday that Kevin Hasset was seen by Trump’s advisers and allies as the frontrunner to become the next Fed Chair.
"Hassett is currently director of the White House National Economic Council, and has endorsed further rate cuts. For instance, he said on Fox News last week that he’d 'be cutting rates right now' and 'the data suggests that we should'.
"We don’t have an exact date for the decision yet, but Treasury Secretary Bessent said on CNBC there was a 'very good chance' that President Trump would make the announcement before Christmas.
"These stories on the data and the new Fed Chair all helped to push Treasury yields lower yesterday, with investors pricing in more cuts for 2026."
The amount of cuts priced by December 2026 moved up 2.3bps on the day to 94bps, ie roughly four quarter-point cuts, which sent the 2yr Treasury yield and the 10yr yield down.
"That decline in nominal and real yields also proved supportive for US equities," says Allen, leaving the S&P index less than 2% from its all-time high.
7.15am: FTSE to add to gains in morning, with Budget later
The FTSE 100 is predicted to make a strong start on Wednesday, with speculation still pouring forth ahead of Rachel Reeves' Budget speech at 12.30pm.
A gain of 32 points for the London index is the call from the futures market, adding to the 74.62 points put on yesterday to close at 9,609.53.
Overnight on Wall Street, a stuttering start was overcome and further advances were made to extend the progress made at the start of the week, the Dow Jones jumped 664 points or 1.4% to 47,112, while the S&P 500 added or 0.9% to 6,766 and the Nasdaq climbed 0.7% to 23,026, all closing back on their all-time highs from earlier in the month.
Asian markets are bathed in green this morning too, with India's Sensex in the lead, up 1%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.4% and the Nikkei just above flat.