- FTSE 100 up 45 points at 10,781
- Oil prices drop as US and Iran pause strikes
- AstraZeneca and Vodafone report as results season ups a gear
5.35pm: Stocks gain
The FTSE 100 added 45 points to finish the day at 10,781 amid a pause in US-Iran fighting.
“The resilience of European stock markets is being driven by this reversal in oil prices, and it may last a while if we keep seeing crude prices come down. But they are unlikely to remain immune if August does live up to its reputation for volatility,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
“Mid-term Augusts aren’t always dire, but much hinges on whether this week’s cavalcade of big tech earnings (and everything else, but tech trumps all) goes the same way as Alphabet’s last week.”
4.07pm: London blue-chips at highest since war started
London stocks are back at their highest level since the first weekend of the Iran war, thanks to investor optimism that the pause on fighting in the Gulf could turn into something more concrete.
Brent crude oil has splattered 6.8% lower to around $90, raising hopes that meaningful inflation can be avoided and interest rates might be able to be cut at some not-too-distant point in the future.
Vodafone, up 5% now, is the biggest gainer today, but that's little to do with oil and more its earlier Q1 trading update.
AstraZeneca, up 2.6% on the back of its interim results, is providing a bit of an offset to the falls for fellow behemoths BP and Shell, down 2.2% and 0.9%.
Miners are among other fallers, with Glencore, Anglo American, and Antofagasta all down between 3% and 1.8%.
3.19pm: JPM sees UK takeover trend continuing
The wave of takeovers and shareholder activism across the UK and Europe has further to run, JPMorgan believes, as persistent valuation discounts provide a fertile landscape for deals.
It comes amidst a flurry of interest in FTSE 350 companies, including DCC today, following deals for easyJet, Segro, Tate & Lyle, Mitie and Rotork in recent weeks, with that figure that more than 150 takeover bids of London-listed companies since the start of 2023.
Takeover and consolidation activity could accelerate, strategists at the US bank say, especially in the UK, where roughly 20% of UK companies trade below book value, compared with 15% in Germany and France and a global average of 10%.
Also, JPMorgan says European equities "broadly fit" the usual profile sought by activists – undervalued companies with identifiable opportunities to improve governance, capital allocation or operations, but which are not in financial distress.
2.58pm: US stocks open higher
Wall Street has opened firmly but not massively higher, with the Dow adding 481.6 points, or 0.9%, in initial trades.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have both gained 0.5%.
Salesforce leads the Dow with a 3.5% rise, followed by 3M, Sherwin-Williams and Boeing.
Technology names were broadly stronger, with Microsoft up 2.2% and Workday, Oracle, AppLovin and Palantir among the S&P 500 leaders.
Baker Hughes topped the wider index with an 8.6% surge after winning a major order from Venture Global LNG.
1.48pm: Dollar softer, but pound more so
After a strong finish to last week, the pound is down slightly against the dollar today, 0.1% at $1.331.
The US dollar was softer across the board this morning, with the euro up 0.2% to above $1.141 earlier, but easing to $1.138 now. Against the pound, the euro rate is up 0.2% to £0.8550
The Dollar Index ended last week around 101.20, notes market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation, having rallied on a ‘flight to quality’ on the back of an escalation in hostilities between the US and Iran.
"But it gapped down overnight, breaking below 101.00, as the US stopped its attacks on Iranian targets which led to a sharp drop in oil prices."
Looking at US stock index futures, he says investors have "responded positively to the sharp drop in the price of crude oil" after the US military held back from attacking Iranian targets over the weekend after close to two weeks of constant bombardment.
While neither Washington nor Tehran has officially commented on the unofficial ceasefire, although Iran has said that it would hold off further military action for as long as the US does.
"Investors are hoping that this could be a precursor to a resumption in peace talks. But there is also speculation that the US has either run out of suitable targets, or ammunition, or some combination of both.
"It is also worth noting that the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have continued to harass shipping attempting to pass through the Bab al-Mandeb strait which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden."
1.14pm: Wetherspoons boss hails 'victory for Timbo'
Wetherspoon's boss Tim Martin has issued a combative stock market announcement disputing an FT Alphaville suggestion that it could make more money from gambling machines than food.
The pub chain maestro said machines generated just 3.4% of sales and 3.6% of gross profit, while food sales were 11 times higher and food gross profit was 10.2 times greater.
Martin accused the analysis of allocating almost all operating costs to food, drink and hotels while leaving machines largely untouched – an approach he dubbed "voodoo economics".
Chairman Martin also took umbrage against the FT’s description of his pubs as "grotty", citing hygiene ratings, beer-guide recommendations and design awards, while acknowledging there may have been an "oblique literary allusion".
Martin finished in true character: "I've been on the other side of the fence from the Financial Times on the two main financial debates of the last 30 years – whether the UK should join the euro and whether the UK should remain in the EU.
"At the risk of immodesty, I'm pleased to say that this fruit machine debate makes it three-nil to Timbo."
Ignoring whether pro-Brexit supporter Martin was right or wrong about that debate, the Alphaville team updated its article, saying they had "hoped we made it clear that the exercise was to treat gambling revenue as ancillary income. Apparently, we didn’t. Congratulations to Timbo on his victory."
12.58pm: FTSE hits 10,800
The FTSE 100 not long ago touched the 10,800 mark again, last seen at the end of February.
Top of the leaderboard are a mix of technology, 'data' and retail sector stocks, with RELX, JD Sports, Autotrader and Sage among the top six.
Vodafone is up 4.2% now, after its Q1 update this morning, while AZ is up 1.5% following its H1 numbers.
Travel-related companies are in demand too, with British Airways owner IAG, Premier Inn parent Whitbread, and engine maker Rolls-Royce all up around 2% or more.
While the blue-chip index has been revisiting highs not seen since the start of the Iran war, the FTSE 250 is on the front foot too, led by casino operator Rank Group, paper maker Mondi, digital ticketer Trainline and fuel cell group Ceres Power.
A near-13% fall for Vesuvius has been a drag, along with drops for oil and energy names such as Energean, Ithaca, Harbour Energy and Hunting.
Bytes Technology is down 1.3% after being downgraded by UBS.
Looking across the pond, Wall Street futures are pointing to a strong start, with Dow Jones and Nasdaq futures jumping 1.1% and 1.4%, with those for the S&P 500 gaining 0.9%.
This is ahead of a few days that Barclays calls "macro's 'Super Bowl' week", with a "massive earnings week for Big Tech, a toss-up Fed meeting in the middle, and more US-Iran headlines".
US companies reporting this week include Visa, Coca-Cola, KLA, Seagate, Boeing, S&P Global and PayPal tomorrow; then Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Lam Research, Procter & Gamble, ARM Holdings, Qualcomm and Starbucks on Wednesday, along with Korea's SK Hynix.
Thursday brings Apple, Amazon, Mastercard and Coinbase, while Friday has ExxonMobil, Chevron, AbbVie and Moderna, together with Japanese memnory maker Kioxia.
12.34pm: Iran confirms talks with Oman over Hormuz reopening
Iran's foreign ministry has denied any current direct negotiations with Washington, but confirmed engagement with Oman "focused on creating the necessary arrangements regarding the Strait of Hormuz".
A ministry spokesman told media in Tehran: "The discussions we have had over the past few days have been exclusively with Oman," .
With Iran and Oman situated either side of the Strait, the spokesman said the two countries are "trying to establish mechanisms regarding maritime traffic", and added that negotiations "may sometimes be subject to different interpretations".
12.05pm: Oil down 11% from Friday
Oil prices continued to drop this morning, with Brent sliding below the $90 mark mid-morning and now at just over $89 a barrel.
This is a fall of over 7.5% today and around 11% from the $100 that we saw as recently as Friday morning.
It's a "thumping drop" and being helped by efforts from Oman to broker a deal "over the vexed issue of shipping passage through the Strait of Hormuz," says market analyst Russ Mould at AJ Bell.
He says the market mood, especially in chipmakers and the tech, has received a further boost from the CXMT IPO and its near five-fold surge.
"The Omani initiative gives investors fresh hope that a lasting agreement between America and Iran is within reach.
"Ever since the initial peace deal on 8 April, markets’ core view has been that military escalation had ended, with the result that de-escalation was next and a settlement the ultimate conclusion."
If oil can return to the sub-$80 levels seen before the war, it will give central banks some breathing room on the inflation front, he says, with a nod to this week's policy pronouncements from the Fed, BoE, and BoJ.
“Neither the Warsh-led Fed nor the Bank of England are expected to raise interest rates. Markets think both could do so in September, although Kevin Warsh has scrapped forward guidance, so investors will have to think for themselves," says Mould.
"As if oil and central banks were not enough to keep investors busy, more than a fifth of the FTSE 100’s members are due to issue results or trading updates in the week ahead, and AstraZeneca’s second-quarter figures have got things off to a solid start."
11.43am: Huang's open-source AI letter
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has led a push by US technology executives to defend open-source AI models against possible government restrictions.
Huang posted a letter as his first-ever tweet, co-signed by Meta, Microsoft, and Palantir, arguing that open models, which anyone can download and modify, drive innovation and commerce.
Closed-model developer Anthropic did not sign, highlighting the industry’s growing split over who controls the AI economy. OpenAI has a mixed model, where most of its flagship models are proprietary – users can access them through ChatGPT or its API, but cannot download or modify their underlying weights.
For my first post, I’m sharing a letter @NVIDIA signed on why open models matter. AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country. Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.… pic.twitter.com/t02bi51N4C — Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang) July 24, 2026
11.14am: Retail downturn eases
The retail sector downturn has eased substantially this month, according to the CBI's latest distributive trades survey, but the sector remains some way from recovery.
July has seen the CBI retail sales balance improve to -26% from -54% in June, although retailers expect sales to decline at the same pace in August.
Online sales deteriorated sharply, with the balance plunging to -47% from zero, which seems to be counter to other research that has shown a rise in online sales due to the heat.
Elsewhere, wholesale volumes were stable for the first time in more than two years, while motor trade sales rebounded at their fastest pace since April 2024.
Martin Sartorius, the CBI's lead economist, says "a recovery still looks some way off as gloomy sentiment and elevated cost pressures weigh on activity. That said, conditions in the rest of the distribution sector were less downbeat, with wholesalers seeing stable volumes for the first time in over two years and motor trade sales rebounding."
He adds that new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s focus on supporting local high streets will be encouraging to the sector, which will be looking for broader business rates reform "to address one of the key constraints on investment and growth".
To deliver the "growth in every postcode" that Downing Street is championing, Sartorius says the government "must also take further action to tackle rising labour costs while protecting labour market flexibility".
10.31am: Big Boxes and data centres
Tritax Big Box REIT has, after a six-week judicial review period, confirmed it has received formal planning consent for its first data centre development.
This Manor Farm site is 74 acres in size, with a planned capacity for 107 megawatts, located near Heathrow Airport.
Planning consent "represents a significant value creation event, enhancing the site's development potential and establishing a clear path to delivery", the company said.
It also confirmed previous planning documents and announced it has a tenant lined up for the site with a pre-let agreement in solicitors' hands.
"With SEGRO likely to be leaving the sector," says analyst Matthew Saperia at Peel Hunt, "Tritax Big Box REIT is the obvious way to play the data centre market, and today's announcement is a timely reminder of that."
Andrew Saunders at Shore Capital notes that Tritax’s three growth drivers are "portfolio reversion capture, logistics development and data centres which collectively have the potential to significantly increase the current passing rent".
Current passing rent of £337 million "has the potential to increase to £425 million in the near term and £562 million over the medium term."
10.19am: Have you heard of CXMT?
Let me introduce you to a new tech company: ChangXin Memory Technologies. This is a Chinese memory chipmaker, which floated in Shanghai earlier today, surging more than 470% to value the company at about 3.3 trillion yuan – or $487.3 billion.
The blockbuster IPO makes CXMT the most valuable publicly traded company on mainland China.
CXMT, which makes memory chips used in AI data centres, smartphones and computers, raised 57.92 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) in the IPO, which it plans to spend on expanding production and research.
Demand heavily exceeded the limited supply of stock, with only 7% of CXMT’s shares available for trading.
Market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote says: "You may have never heard of this company before – I'd never heard of it either – but it has quietly become China's national memory champion and the world's fourth-largest DRAM [dynamic random-access memory] maker.
"The company was founded less than a decade ago, but it has been growing at breathtaking – Chinese-scale – speed, benefiting from booming AI demand as well as Beijing's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency.
"It now controls around 8-10% of the global DRAM market, and some analysts see that rising into the high teens by 2028 as it aggressively expands production to take on Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron – three of the hottest stocks of the past year."
She says CXMT's rapid expansion "could eventually add pricing pressure on these companies", which have been raising memory-chip prices of late, including high triple-digit percentage price increases in recent months.
"Beyond the pricing story, CXMT is another reminder that China is quietly building its own AI supply chain from chips to models, reducing its dependence on Western technology while becoming an increasingly serious competitor to the incumbents."
9.42am: 'A major shift in financial markets'
Initial gains for the FTSE have been chipped away, with the London index up around 0.3% now, with the pace in Europe being set by Germany’s DAX and Spain’s IBEX, both up over 1%.
The Stoxx 600 is up 0.5%, with software and technology names leading the rally, including SAP, Nemetschek and Wolters Kluwer.
Oil producers are putting on the brakes, with Equinor down 5.2%, Vår Energi off 4.9%, Eni losing 4.2% and BP falling 3.5%.
"There has been a major shift in financial markets this morning," says analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB, citing reports that the US and Iran have agreed to a pause in hostilities after two weeks of strikes.
"This has dramatically reduced the geopolitical risk premium," she says, with the Brent crude oil price down 10% from where it was on Friday morning.
"The question now is, will the de-escalation in tensions between Iran and the US have a longer-term dampening impact on the oil price, and will it lead to reduced inflationary concerns as we lead up to some key central bank meetings?"
For now, the Strait of Hormuz is still under a blockade, with Houthi attacks in the Red Sea keeping investors worried about commodity supply risks.
"Although the situation in the Middle East has calmed, it has not been resolved, and it could make a decline below $85b per barrel tricky at this stage," Brooks says.
However, as she points out, we have been here before and the abandonment of the ceasefire and resumption of military strikes in the last two weeks "have reminded us that geopolitical risks are never far away, and relations between the US and Iran remain incendiary".
9.08am: Vodafone encouraging
Vodafone is top of the blue-chip risers, following what analyst Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown calls "an encouraging start to the year, with every part of the business growing and profits rising faster than revenue".
"Stable growth from Germany was key and better than expected, as demand for broadband picked up and income from other network providers helped balance a competitive mobile market.
"The UK also moved forward, with the integration of Three on track, and early network upgrades already improving speeds for customers.
"There’s still work to do, but the direction of travel is positive, and we should see some consensus upgrades off the back of these numbers."
8.36am: AZ inching away from recent lows
AstraZeneca shares climbed almost 2% to 12,922p, their highest since the failed Wainua trial (though by no means all the way, as the shares were at 14,240p before that news), after the drugmaker's first-half results.
Analyst Michael Leuchten at Jefferies says higher income from partnerships and a slightly better profit margin were offset by higher selling and administrative costs, although a lower tax bill helped earnings beat expectations by 5%.
With the 2026 outlook kept unchanged, he says this means the City revenue consensus forecasts sit near the bottom of its guidance range while earnings forecasts are "towards the midpoint" if assuming constant currency rates.
He also highlighted AstraZeneca’s assessment of tozorakimab as a potential $5 billion-plus respiratory opportunity ahead of an upcoming presentation.
Adam Vettese, market analyst at eToro, says the results "look reassuringly solid".
He flags double-digit oncology gains from Imfinzi, Calquence and Tagrisso, more than offseting the expected Farxiga patent hit and China pressures.
"That said, the recent Wainua heart drug failure still hangs over the stock. Growth is clearly moderating, and investors will stay laser focused on the remaining big oncology trial readouts later this year."
8.15am: FTSE 100 springs higher at open, led by Vodafone
The FTSE 100 has begun the week with a spring in its step, advancing 51 points to 10,787 despite sizeable declines for oil and gas names.
Driving the index higher are gains for AstraZeneca, up 1.1%, travel-related names like IAG and Rolls-Royce, up 3.2% and 2.6%, as well as banks, miners and retailers.
Vodafone is at the front of the pack, up 3.6% following its upbeat update.
At the other end of the table, BP and Shell are down 3.7% and 1.9%, with British Gas owner Centrica falling 1.5% and commodities giant Glencore falling 1.4%.
7.55am: AstraZeneca delivers Q2 beat, 'on track' for full year
AstraZeneca has reported a better set of second-quarter earnings than expected, with growth in oncology and rare diseases helping offset weaker sales elsewhere.
Core earnings per share increased 21% to $2.63 in the second quarter, ahead of the average City analyst forecast of $2.48. Revenue rose 6% to $15.4 billion, narrowly below the $15.4 billion predicted.
Chief executive Pascal Soriot says the company was disappointed by the failure of the key CARDIO-TTRansform trial earlier this month, which has seen more than 11% of the group's valuation shaved off, but across the group is "on track to deliver our $80 billion total revenue ambition, which assumes successes and setbacks".
7.31am: Vodafone eyes top end of guidance
Vodafone has got off to a strong start to its financial year and says it now expects to reach the upper end of full-year guidance.
Organic service revenue increased 5.2% in the first quarter, with growth recorded across every segment, and inching up from 5.1% in the final quarter of the past year.
Reported service revenue rose 9.8% to €8.6 billion, while total revenue climbed 9.7% to €10.3 billion, helped by the merger of its UK business with Three.
Underlying profits on an EBITDAaL basis increased 6.7% to €2.9 billion, or 6.2% on an organic basis.
FTSE 100 Live: Flying start expected to busy week
The FTSE 100 is set to hit the ground running on Monday, starting what will be a busy week of corporate and central bank news on a bright note after a pause in US attacks on Iran sent oil prices sharply lower and lifted global equity markets.
London's blue-chip index has been called 43 points higher on the futures market on Monday, while European and US stock futures are also pointing to solid gains.
Brent crude has fallen 5.5% to $91.54 a barrel after Washington halted its bombing campaign on Friday without explaining the decision.
Iran has also indicated it will not retaliate further, raising hopes of a shift towards diplomacy.
However, the geopolitical picture remains highly uncertain, with minimal traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and reported attacks in the Red Sea and Yemen’s Houthis announcing a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia.
The calmer weekend and retreat in energy prices supported government bonds, with the US two-year yield down five basis points and UK 2yr falling 11bps from Thursday's two-month high.
European markets are expected to join the rally, with Germany’s DAX called more than 1% higher and France’s CAC 40 seen up 0.8%. Across the pond, Dow futures have added 0.8%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.9% and Nasdaq futures climbed 1.45%.
UK reporting season kicks up a gear this week, with AstraZeneca, Vodafone and Cranswick leading Monday’s UK company news. Others coming later in the week include Unilever, GSK, Rio Tinto, Lloyds, Standard Chartered, BAE Systems, LSEG, IAG, NatWest and Rightmove.
Central banks will also dominate the business agenda, with the US Federal Reserve decision on interest rates on Wednesday, the Bank of England on Thursday and the Bank of Japan on Friday.
