- FTSE 100 down 16 points to 10,472
- AstraZeneca tumbles after clinical trial failure
- Computacenter and Playtech soar after trading updates
5.15pm: Stocks slip
London stocks edged lower on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 down 16 points at 10,472, as investors moved cautiously amid geopolitical uncertainty.
“While the attacks in the Middle East appeared to intensify overnight, there has been little dramatic rhetoric today, leading to hopes that any renewed conflict can be avoided,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
4.11pm: FTSE losses cut
Losses for the FTSE 100 have been cut from almost 90 points in the morning part of the session to less than 20 in the past hour.
AstraZeneca's gone from a 13% plunge in initial trades to less than 8% now. Defence contractors BAE and Babcock are continuing falls begun earlier in the week, while BAT is down 2.4% after its shares went ex-dividend.
There are other heavyweight fallers too, with Shell and BP both down over 1%.
Also at the other end, Computacenter has seen a lot of the oomph go out of its strong early surge, and it is still up 6.5%.
The leaderboard shows miners in demamd as metals prices rise, while housebuilders Persimmon and Barratt Redrow have also gained, alongside lenders, led by Standard Chartered, HSBC and Barclays.
There are also gains for industrials such as Rolls-Royce and IMI.
3.41am: US tech earnings season kicks off next week
As the end of the week looms, some investors will be looking ahead to what's coming in the next one, when we will face a busier period for corporate earnings, with Wall Street banks kicking off the US reporting season alongside updates from several big UK companies.
Tuesday sees full-year results from Watches of Switzerland and a trading update from recruiter Robert Walters. Then it's the turn of the big US banks, with JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup kickingoff the US bank earnings season. US inflation data is also due.
Wednesday brings a trading update from Barratt Redrow, full-year results from Cohort and a trading statement from Hunting. In the US, investors will be watching results from ASML, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), BlackRock and United Airlines, alongside producer price inflation.
Thursday is another busy day in the UK, with half-year results from Ocado and Crest Nicholson plus trading updates from Dunelm, Diploma and Wise. US earnings include UnitedHealth, Netflix and Seagate, while UK GDP and US retail sales data are also scheduled.
The week ends on Friday with the latest GfK consumer confidence survey, providing a fresh reading on UK household sentiment.
3.29pm: Pension funds should feel duty to invest more in UK PLC
Business secretary Peter Kyle has turned up the heat on UK pension funds, warning they should invest more in British companies or face legislation forcing them to do so.
Speaking to the Guardian at an event at Lloyds Banking Group’s London HQ, Kyle said fund managers should feel "a patriotic duty in making Britain a success" and urged them to "get off their high horses".
While insisting compulsory investment was not his preferred option, he added: "I'll use it if I have to, because I'm in a rush."
The comments add to growing government pressure on the pensions industry to channel more retirement savings into UK businesses, infrastructure and growth assets.
With the number of takeovers of UK companies over the last few years, it suggests that others are seeing more value here that our own fund industry. UK equities have fallen from around 32% of defined benefit pension scheme assets in 2006 to under 2% by 2023, while gilt holdings have surged. Meanwhile, the rise of defined contribution pensions has led to much higher exposure to the US and much lower exposure to UK-listed companies, as most use global market-cap weighted indices as default options.
It's also a consequence of UK investors taking money out of UK-focused funds (fresh data showed another £260 million left UK equity funds in June).
The government's rhetoric can make it sound as though pension funds have simply chosen to ignore the UK, whereas the reality is a combination of investor preferences, regulation, demographics and market structure.
2.42pm: AI trade lifts Wall Street
The main US stock indices have opened higher on Thursday, with chipmakers once again leading the market after another bout of rotation back into the semiconductor sector.
The Nasdaq has cranked 0.6% higher, with the S&P 500 up 0.4%. After an initial wobble in the red, the Dow has edged just above flat, held back by losses in heavyweight technology and consumer names including IBM, Salesforce and Microsoft.
On the Nasdaq and S&P, semiconductor stocks dominated the leaderboard, with Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA all jumping more than 7%.
Micron has buzzed up over 6% after plans mentioned below to invest up to $3 billion in the US semiconductor supply chain, while Arm, AMD, Marvell and Western Digital also posted strong gains as the AI infrastructure trade is in investors' good books again.
2.29pm: GSK ends $2bn neuroscience partnership
It's not just AstraZeneca with news among UK big pharma.
Last night, it was revealed that GSK has walked away from its neuroscience partnership with US biotech Alector after both experimental drugs at the heart of the collaboration failed in clinical trials, drawing a line under a deal struck in 2021.
GSK made a $700 million upfront payment, targeted at treatments for frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
With both programmes now scrapped, GSK has served notice to terminate the agreement from January 2027, meaning most of the remaining milestone payments will never be made.
Alector shares fell 5% yesterday, with this marking a second major pharma partner exit in less than two years after AbbVie abandoned a separate Alzheimer's collaboration in 2025.
1.46pm: Micron invests $3bn in US semiconductor supply chain
Micron said it plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain, including $500 million to support Taiwan-based GlobalWafers' new 300mm silicon wafer plant in Texas.
In a statement, it said the two companies will also sign a 10-year supply agreement, giving Micron long-term access to critical wafer capacity as it expands production to meet growing AI-driven demand for memory chips.
The company has got a few comments frm politicians to add to its statement.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says Micron’s investment to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain "is making the United States stronger in a sector that is vital to our economy and our technological leadership".
12.50pm: Segro and Prologis not giving up
Segro has issued a response to an announcement by suitor Prologis this morning, following a trading update from the REIT yesterday.
Prologis stepped up its pursuit by publishing a fresh presentation urging the UK warehouse owner to enter "constructive engagement" over a potential takeover.
The US logistics group said it offers a "superior platform and a larger data center opportunity", pushing its arguments that its scale, balance sheet and expertise would create "the best outcome" for shareholders.
It again urged the Segro board to engage so a binding offer could be put to investors, which is worth 886p per share.
In the response, Andy Harrison, Segro chairman, said: "The board takes its fiduciary duties very seriously, but the value of Prologis's current, rejected proposal does not reflect any basis for further engagement."
He reiterated that the announcement and presentation are "consistent with its attempt to buy Segro on the cheap".
Segro urged shareholders to take no action in relation to Prologis's proposal.
12.24pm: Markets lose momentum, but US chip stocks set to continue rally
Markets have lost some early momentum, with the Stoxx 600 now up just 0.2% and Germany's DAX having flirted in the red and now up around 0.2%.
London's Footsie remains the outlier, down 0.7%, as AstraZeneca's 8%-plus slide continues to outweigh strength in mining stocks and Computacenter. AZ has over an 8% weighting on the index, so with such a big fall it's having a large effect.
US futures are mixed, with Nasdaq futures up 0.5%, possibly with investors continuing to rotate back into chip stocks, while Dow Jones futures have edged 0.1% lower, with the S&P 500 in between, up 0.1%.
Kathleen Brooks at XTB says this comes as the market "normalizes to the latest flare up of tensions in the Middle".
Brent crude, after slipping back below $77 a barrel, has climbed back above $78. Bond yields, which also had eased earlier, have also been pushed higher.
"Although the events of recent days are another sign that the path to a long-term peace will have many twists and turns, the market seems well placed to absorb the current tensions," Brooks reckons.
Amidst the angst about the Iran war, there was a rotation out of broader tech stocks and back into chip stocks.
"Ahead today, we could see a continued rally in chip stocks. SanDisk and Nvidia are pointing to further gains today, while the hyperscalers like Microsoft and Alphabet are declining in the pre-market, suggesting that the rotation within the AI trade continues," she says.
"From an economic standpoint, initial jobless claims are worth watching later today as the focus remains on the strength of the US labour market. The dollar is broadly lower today as the oil price comes under pressure and yields fall.
"The weaker dollar impulse could continue if the initial jobless claims data support signs of a softer labour market."
11.40am: BP boss stresses simplicity
BP chief executive Meg O'Neill marked her first 100 days by pledging stricter capital discipline, lower costs and a simpler business, saying the oil major must make "fewer, better choices" as it sharpens its focus on oil and gas.
O'Neill, who took over as CEO in April, said in a LinkedIn post that BP needed to be "deliberate about where we invest and where we don’t".
"We need to make fewer, better choices and hold ourselves to account."
She outlined three priorities to make BP "simpler, stronger and more valuable": operational excellence, improved accountability and strong discipline in costs, cash and capital.
A month ago, BP announced a reorganisation from three to two business segments, upstream and downstream, to cut complexity, clarify accountability and speed up decision-making as it pursues higher returns.
O'Neill said it would make life simpler for employees and investors.
10.58am: UK housing slightly less bad
The latest RICS survey suggests the housing market is slightly less bad in recent weeks, with house prices continuing to fall in June, with the headline balance at -33%, while new buyer enquiries and agreed sales both stayed firmly negative, albeit improving for a third month.
The biggest wrinkle is supply, where new instructions from would-be sellers fell to their weakest level in more than a year, suggesting fewer homes are coming onto the market just as demand shows tentative signs of stabilising.
"June’s survey results offer some cautious encouragement that the worst of the slowdown in market activity may be beginning to pass," says RICS head of market and analysis Tarrant Parsons, hailing the "less negative direction" for a second consecutive month.
"That said, any nascent improvement remains fragile and is now being tested by renewed political uncertainty on the domestic front.
"While the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged, uncertainty around the outlook for inflation and borrowing costs continues to weigh on sentiment, even if the recent decline in oil prices is a welcome development.
"Until there is greater clarity over both the political backdrop and the path of interest rates, housing market activity is likely to remain relatively subdued in the near term."
The rental market tells a different story, with tenant demand strengthened to its highest since May 2025 while landlords remained reluctant to add properties, pointing to further rent increases over the coming year.
10.26am: Playtech on a hot streak in Americas
Playtech shares have rolled almost 17% higher after the gaming tech firm said first-half trading was stronger than the market expected, helped by rapid growth in the Americas.
The gambling technology group expects adjusted EBITDA of more than €155 million for the first six months of the year, and at least €270 million for the full year.
Analyst Ivor Jones at Peel Hunt says the full-year guidance is 20% higher than his forecast, with key drivers being Hard Rock Digital in the US, along with Mexico and Colombia.
"We see clear upside potential to our forecasts for FY27E and beyond, but we intend to wait for greater clarity to emerge with the 1H26 results in September, including in relation to the 'significant partnership in Brazil', before making changes to outer years."
10am: Oil volatile after US and Iran exchange more strikes
Brent crude has slipped below $77 a barrel on Thursday despite fresh military action between the US and Iran, suggesting traders remain unconvinced the conflict will disrupt oil supplies.
The US said this morning it had struck another 90 Iranian targets, taking the total to 170 over the past 48 hours.
Iran launched retaliatory attacks targeting US military sites in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Air defence systems intercepted incoming drones and missiles, with no immediate reports of damage.
President Trump said that he would not stop negotiations but that "I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal. I don’t know that they’re going to honor the deal."
Analysts at Deutsche Bank say the resurgent oil prices are leading to repricing of rate expectations.
The probability of a Fed hike as soon as this month was up 3.2 basis points to 30.5% by the close, and the amount of hikes priced by December was up 4.8bps on the day to 42.2bps.
For the ECB, there was an even bigger repricing, with the amount of hikes by December up 12.7bps on the day to 39.5bps.
"And given the ECB already hiked in June, that pricing implies a growing chance that they might end up hiking 3 times by the end of the year."
Later on, the minutes from last month’s Fed meeting were released, which the analysts say "added further credence to the hawkish market pricing seen since the meeting last month.
"While much of the committee agreed that inflation would cool as energy prices fell and one-off tariff impacts subsided, there were some worries of persistent underlying price pressures."
The build-out of AI infrastructure for many members of the Federal Open Markets Committee meant that ongoing strong demand "would likely sustain upward pressure on prices for technology products and electricity", while there was greater concern among the committee that consumers and businesses are increasingly expecting higher prices.
"However, most Fed officials said in the minutes that they put more weight on financial market measures of inflation expectations rather than surveyed responses."
9.31am: European markets rebound, apart from the FTSE
After an hour and a half of trading, European markets are broadly higher, with the London benchmark the only one in red, with AstraZeneca the point of difference.
On the Continent, Spain's IBEX and Italy's FTSE MIB up 1% and 0.8%, while the German DAX has gained 0.4%.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 is up 0.4%, with AZ's 9% loss offset by an 11% jump for Computacenter, while Nokia gained after reporting a new contract win.
Semiconductor stocks are also in demand, with STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), ASM International and BE Semiconductor among the leading risers alongside London miners Antofagasta and Glencore.
Market analyst Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell says markets are staging a comeback after yesterday’s downbeat session.
"Many of yesterday’s losers dominated the risers’ list, including miners and banks as investors took the view that Donald Trump might not let the Iran war rage on.
"He hinted that Iran still wanted to make a peace deal, giving the market hope that a resolution is still possible."
With oil prices easing back 1% to $77.30 per barrel, he says this provides "some relief to those who feared new inflationary pressures".
"The problem is that the news flow continues to change direction at the click of a finger and it’s impossible to say with any certainty what could happen next."
8.57am: AZ failure hits 'water-tight' trial reputation
AstraZeneca's market value has so far taken a £20 billion hit from today's drug trial news, with its market cap falling below £200 billion.
It is still the second largest company on the Footsie, behind £248 billion HSBC and ahead of £169 billion Shell.
Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten says the failure of the CARDIO-TTRansform trial was "surprising", putting circa 2% of AZ's net present value at risk, equivalent to about $2.5 billion in risk-adjusted sales.
But he believes the shares could fall by twice that amount because of concerns over management credibility.
"This does not jeopardise the company's 2030 $80 billion sales target, but mgmt had been very confident around the primary endpoint and the ability to hit in combination use.
"Given AZN is meant to be able to design trials that are mostly water-tight, we suspect the share price reaction will go beyond the NPV impact."
He said the stock "may not recover until the next volatility catalyst (AVANZAR) is out of the way".
8.21am: AstraZeneca's trial setback
Digging through pharma analyst notes, it seems AstraZeneca's trial setback wipes out one of its biggest late-stage pipeline opportunities.
In a note earlier this year, Citi analysts had forecast peak annual sales of more than $6 billion from Wainua and estimated the programme accounted for about 2.8% of its valuation.
The CARDIO-TTRansform trial of Wainua was investigating its ability to treat transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy. The company said the treatment did not significantly reduce cardiovascular deaths and recurrent cardiovascular events versus placebo.
8.14am: AstraZeneca drags FTSE into red
The FTSE 100 opened higher in the first two minutes of trading but has slumped into the red for one main reason: a 9% plunge for AstraZeneca.
Earlier, the drug giant announced that a Phase III trial of drug Wainua failed to meet its primary endpoint of treating a rare, progressive heart disease.
The study found no statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular deaths and recurrent cardiovascular events versus placebo, although a prespecified subgroup receiving Wainua alone showed a nominally significant benefit.
Elsewhere, Computacenter jumped over 13% on the back of its positive trading update.
Miners Antofagasta, Anglo American and Glencore are next, all up 3% or more.
8.03am: Energy System Operator issues heatwave warning
The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has issued an electricity margin notice after forecasting tight electricity margins for tomorrow evening's peak demand period.
Pressure on the system is being driven by the current extreme temperatures across Europe, which have reduced the availability of some electricity generation.
NESO stressed: "There is no risk to customer electricity supplies. An EMN is a routine operational tool NESO uses to balance the electricity system. We will continue to monitor conditions closely and take any actions necessary to maintain secure electricity supplies."
8am: Seraphim Space deal under-valued
Seraphim Space Investment Trust has completed the sale of portfolio company ALL.SPACE to NYSE-listed York Space Systems, though the deal's value has fallen below its last reported carrying value after a decline in York's share price.
The FTSE 250-listed space-tech investor received initial consideration of approximately $17.9 million (£13.4m) in cash and 1.24 million York shares, with up to a further $8.1 million (£6.1m) in cash held in escrow pending post-completion adjustments.
Based on York's closing price on Tuesday, the total initial consideration should rise to around £40.7 million if all escrow funds are released, compared to a fair value of £57.4 million ascribed to the holding at 31 March.
7.56am: Capita takes up to £40m hit from civil service pensions issues
Capita has cut its financial guidance after warning that problems on the civil service pension scheme contract revealed earlier in the week will have a bigger hit to profits and cash flow than previously expected.
Even after mitigating actions across the business, the outsourcing group now expects the issues on the contract, together with the knock-on effect on its wider pension solutions arm, will reduce adjusted operating profit by £25-40 million this year.
A £35-50 million impact on free cash flow is expected, leading management to delay the target of becoming free cash flow positive to next year.
7.33am: Computacenter ups outlook
Computacenter has upped its outlook for the year as its first-half profits are set to double after a stronger-than-expected second quarter.
The FTSE 100 technology and services provider said preliminary results indicated adjusted profit before tax for the first six months of 2026 will be roughly double last year's £81.5 million.
Trading in the second quarter exceeded its expectations following what it described as an excellent first quarter.
FTSE 100 Live pre-open
Blue-chip stocks in London and mainland Europe are set to rebound on Thursday after reports that the US and Iran could agree a new ceasefire deal.
FTSE 100 futures pointed to a gain of 36 points, a day after the index plunged almost 177 points to end at 10,489.04.
Trading in New York overnight was mixed, as the Dow Jones fell 1.1% and the S&P 500 declined 0.3%, but support for some AI-related stocks helped the Nasdaq to advance 0.2%.
Asian markets are mostly higher this morning, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng the exception.
In commodities, oil prices dropped after an Axios reporter tweeted that President Trump had told reporters on Air Force One that Iran "called a short while ago" and said they "want to make a deal".
Brent crude dipped just below $78 a barrel, having risen from $72 to $79 earlier in the week.
The Axios reporter reported that Trump added that the White House is "preparing for what could turn into a round of fighting with Iran around the Strait of Hormuz that will last several days and perhaps even several weeks", depending on Tehran's next steps.
