- FTSE 100 up 37 points to 10,908
- Earlier topped 10,949 - a new intraday high
- Results out from Glencore, Rio, Reckitt, Stan Chart, Greggs, Aberdeen, Weir
5.30pm: Stocks gain
The FTSE 100 finished the day 37 points higher at 10,908 as investors await the outcome of the Fed’s meeting.
“The tension can be felt across the globe, exemplified by gold slipping through $4000 and a brutal reversal for the Dow, previously a safe haven in US indices amidst the rout in global chip stocks,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said. “The reasons to hunker down and sit out August in cash are manifold.”
4.16pm: Trump gets markets moving, downwards
It's a broadly mixed picture for markets ahead of the US Fed decision, wjhich is due around 2pm in the US Eastern time, so 7pm London time.
While the FTSE is still up around 0.3% and the DAX is flat, most European and US indices are in the red.
The Dow Jones is down 820 points or 1.6% now, with the S&P and Nasdaq off 0.8% and 1%.
Of the top 20 largest companis in the S&P 500, AMD is down 4.6%, Micron 3.7%, Nvidia 2.1%, JPMorgan 1.9%, Tesla 1.4%, Amazon 1.2%, while Broadcom, Meta and Berkshire Hathaway between 1$ and 0.5%.
"Trump's pledge to hit Iran hard has ignited a new spike in oil prices, simultaneously demolishing the morning bounce in equities," says Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG.
"It looks increasingly like a return to full-blown conflict is inevitable, and this time around oil inventories are wafer thin, setting up a return to the spring highs in oil prices."
3.43pm: Laughs on Ferrari (NYSE:RACE)'s EV haters
Ferrari (NYSE:RACE)'s first-ever electric vehicle, the Luce, has already hit its annual sales target.
Remember, the launch of this design from former Apple guru Sir Jony Ive was laughed off by the market, sending the shares skidding as much as 8% lower, wiping roughly €4 billion to €5 billion from the Italian automotive stallion's market cap.
Despite the backlash over what people felt was a very un-Ferrari (NYSE:RACE)-like design ("luxury toaster"), strong demand from China has led to the target being quickly met, the Financial Times reported.
Ferrari aimed to sell only around 500 units of the Luce model this year, something that was achieved in less than two months, according to the report.
2.55pm: Wall Street in selling mode ahead of Fed
Early US trading is firmly in the red, with the Dow Jones falling 611 points, or 1.16%, to 52,136.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% to 7,400, while the Nasdaq fell 0.5% to 24,763 as renewed US-Iran tensions weighed on risk appetite.
Paint maker Sherwin-Williams leads the Dow fallers, followed by Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, Goldman Sachs and Boeing.
JPMorgan, Honeywell, Home Depot and IBM also declined, while technology heavyweights Microsoft and Amazon added further pressure to the index.
Technology stocks remain under pressure on the Nasdaq 100. SanDisk fell 3.8%, while Applied Materials, NXP Semiconductor, KLA, Arm Holdings and Advanced Micro Devices were among the semiconductor names in negative territory, betrween 3% and 1%.
2.24pm: Trump in sweary rant against Iran
Oil prices were nudged higher after Donald Trump threatened a forceful response to Iran's overnight attacks on US assets, telling Fox News that Washington would "beat the f**king shit" out of Tehran.
"We'll be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating," the US president said, describing the missile strike against American forces in Jordan as a "surprise attack" that gave troops only minutes to respond.
Trump said US-Saudi strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq were coordinated with Baghdad and called the groups a "cancer on the world".
Despite the escalation, Trump said US negotiators would be allowed to continue talks with Iran. He added that his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had gone well and that Netanyahu "understands now", without explaining further.
Brent crude oil is now up 6.9% to just under $90.
2pm: Grant Thornton makes it 'big six' with CBIZ deal?
Anglo-US accountancy group Grant Thornton has agreed to acquire NYSE-listed rival CBIZ for $5 billion in cash, creating the fifth-largest professional services, tax and advisory provider.
The offer is at $55 per share – a premium of about 54% to the stock's 30-day average price. Private equity group New Mountain Capital will provide additional funding for the transaction.
The enlarged Grant Thornton business is expected to generate more than $5 billion in annual US revenue. Its wider multinational platform will employ over 34,500 people across more than 20 countries and produce nearly $7.5 billion in revenue.
1.30pm: BMW eyes 8,000 job cuts
BMW is reportedly preparing to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany as the carmaker responds to rising competition from Chinese rivals and the cost of shifting to electric vehicles.
The Munich-based group has launched a voluntary redundancy programme covering administrative and development roles, although production workers will be excluded. BMW employs around 160,000 people globally.
European carmakers have been contending with an influx of cheaper models from China, as well as US tariffs and heavy investment requirements for electric vehicles.
BMW, where new CEO Milan Nedeljković was appointed in May, said it was "proactively shaping the profound changes" in its operating environment, which it said include "the technological transformation of the automotive industry, geopolitical uncertainties, changing market conditions and developments in China."
1.05pm: Europe and US stocks mixed as earnings drive moves
US stock futures point to another mixed open, with Dow futures down 0.35%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures have edged up 0.1-0.2%.
European markets are similarly divided, with DAX joining the FTSE 100 in green, up 0.25% and 0.3%, while France's CAC 40 is still down 0.5% and Spain's IBEX is doing worst, down 1.3%.
French technology consultant Alten is leading the Stoxx 600 with a 19.7% surge, while luxury group Kering has climbed 15% after both reported earnings.
Kering, owner of the Gucci brand among others, has returned to growth, something that is lifting Burberry 2.5% in London, though another European rival, Hermes, is down 11% after reporting weak China growth.
Other UK names are up there too, with Greggs jumping 14.6% and Weir Group up 8% following their results.
At the other end, used car platform Auto1 has dropped 11.4% as it kept guidance unchanged.
12.08am: Aberdeen, Entain and Diageo drag
What's been holding back the Footsie since its early surge?
Aberdeen Group is down 4.6% despite first-half profit beating expectations, as investors focused on weaker fund flows.
Adjusted PBT was an 8% beat on consensus, despite a large miss on net flows, with retail platform Inertactive Investor "the star," says Abid Hussain at Panmure Liberum.
Customer numbers were up 35% for ii, with subscription fees up 15% and record trading activity, up 9%.
Assets under management and administration came in at £579 billion versus consensus at £576 billion, with net flows down £3 billion versus consensus expecting a gain of £0.8 billion.
Entain is down 3.2% after BetMGM's Q2 "reflected a well-documented slowdown in iGaming performance through 1H26, though recently revived", says Jefferies analyst James Wheatcroft.
Guidance was confirmed at the lower end of the range, in line with current consensus estimates, while the $500 million EBITDA target is pushed out beyond 2027.
Wheatcroft estimates that every $20 million reduction in BetMGM 2027 EBITDA is around a 1% impact to Entain's consensus EPS.
Entain will publish its interims on 13 August, with the analyst seeing "zero value for BetMGM priced into Entain" and a sum-of-the-parts valuation implying circa 70% share price upside.
Diageo is down 2.6%, which is due to a Deutsche Bank downgrade of Guinness maker following the recent outperformance of its shares and ahead of results and a strategic reset to be announced from CEO Dave Lewis next week.
10.52am: FTSE attractions in full effect today
The FTSE 100 sneaked above its all-time high from February in early trading "helped by its lack of exposure to technology and AI stocks, and a slew of strong corporate results," says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
This was helped by several index heavyweights Standard Chartered, Reckitt Benckiser and Rio Tinto all delivering either better-than-expected profits, or bumper cash returns to shareholders, or both.
Standard Chartered hiked its dividend by two thirds and unveiled a new $1 billion share buyback, while Reckitt increased its payment by 5% and added a fresh £500 million buyback to the mix, with Rio Tinto chipping in a 43% increase in its first-half shareholder distribution.
"This bonanza for investors underpins one of the London market’s attractions, namely cash returns," says Mould.
The blue-chip index’s members are forecast to pay out £88.8 billion in dividends in total year, while today’s announcements from Stan Chart and Reckitt take the total value of planned share buybacks by the index’s members to £40 billion.
"Add in around £10 billion in dividends and £7.9 billion from buybacks from other members of the FTSE All-Share and AIM All-Share indices, and the £70 billion in live or completed takeover deals, and investors with exposure to UK equities are poised to pocket £217 billion this year, if all goes to plan," Mould adds.
He points out that this equates to just over 7% of Footsie’s £3 trillion stock market capitalisation and if you use that figure as a total cash yield, it is well above the current 2.6% rate of inflation, the 3.75% Bank of England base rate and the 4.98% benchmark ten-year Gilt yield.
Mould also notes that Apple’s stock market capitalisation passed $5 trillion this week, which at a GBP/USD rate of $1.33 easily outstrips the London market’s total valuation.
Both Apple and the FTSE "seem to be benefitting from their lack of exposure to the pell-mell spending on Artificial Intelligence large language models, data centres and memory chips," he adds.
All in all, it "sets the stage" for tonight’s results from Microsoft and then Apple and Amazon tomorrow.
10.06am: Businesses split on Burnham
UK senior business leaders are divided over Andy Burnham, with 31% saying he has what it takes to be a good prime minister, 31% disagreeing and another 31% undecided, according to a new poll from Ipsos.
Labour maintained a clear lead on business policy. Some 27% said it had the best policies for British companies, against 21% for Reform UK and 16% for the Conservatives. Labour also led on managing the economy, workers and international trade.
Business confidence improved, with 31% expecting economic conditions to strengthen over the coming year, up from 26% in May. However, 41% still expect deterioration.
Cutting energy costs and business taxes remained the leading demands, while interest in government support for adopting AI increased.
"Our latest business polling results highlight some positive signs for the new Labour government: confidence has improved since the spring, with Labour increasing its lead as the party with the best policies for Britain’s businesses," says Oliver Fenton, associate director at Ipsos.
"There is also evidence to suggest that Burnham’s regional agenda appeals to UK businesses, but one in three remain unsure whether that he has what it takes to be a good Prime Minister.
"Support with energy costs and business taxes will go a significant way to convincing the wider business community that Burnham is on their side."
9.37am: Nasty combination for markets
The FTSE has seen its early momentum subside, while mainland European markets are in the red, with the German and French benchmarks down 0.15% and 0.5%.
Markets are "dealing with a nasty combination" this morning, says Patrick Munnelly at Tickmill: with worries about Middle East escalation and inflation, AI spending and what central banks will do.
"Oil is higher after renewed US-Iran conflict headlines, while the Fed’s new communication regime under Warsh has left markets unusually unsure going into today’s FOMC decision.
"The result is a risk tape with very little emotional support and even less policy hand-holding."
SK Hynix fell as much as 20% after a six-fold rise in earnings was seen as a "miss", while Samsung dropped as much as 14% ahead of its own results.
"The message is clear: investors are no longer rewarding AI exposure by default. They want proof of earnings conversion, margin resilience, and demand durability," says Munnelly.
8.52am: Stan Chart impresses
Standard Chartered is up 4.7% after it was among those that reported this morning, with a new $1 billion (£0.75bn) buyback and 66% dividend increase showing the board's confidence.
Market analyst Richard Hunter at Interactive Investor says the Asia-focused bank's multi-year strategy is "reaping record rewards", with first-half income and pre-tax profit reaching new highs.
Pre-tax profit rose 9% to $4.78 billion, beating the $4.52 billion forecast, while net profit of $3.37 billion also topped expectations.
Hunter says its wealth arm is the "jewel in the crown" after income surged 38%, while global banking revenue rose 20%.
A $446 million impairment charge was the only notable blemish, though much of it reflected prudent Middle East provisions rather than worsening credit.
The new $1 billion buyback and 66% dividend increase showed confidence, but Hunter warned the shares no longer looked obviously cheap after their stellar run.
8.31am: Weir all going on a summer holiday
On FTSE leader Weir, analyst Alex O'Hanlon at Panmure Liberum says results "were broadly in line with expectations", with total orders slightly ahead of the £1.38 billion consensus forecast and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12 up from 1.09.
"Minerals continued to win greater than 90% of field trials which is encouraging."
On the other hand, Harry Philips at Peel Hunt feels the results read "better than many expected", though EBITA of £239 million was "bang on consensus".
Organic order book growth accelerating from the first to the second quarter "is important for second-half revenue delivery" and "highlights market share gains, which is a direct response to the debate in recent months post comments from peers", Philips adds.
While full-year guidance is unchanged, he highlights "many moving parts", so wonders if there might be "some trims, particularly on FY margins".
But he says "the key is the momentum after the sticky Q1, and the margin should follow, so this underpins our confidence".
8.15am: FTSE 100 surges to new high
The FTSE 100 has started with more impetus than expected, climbing 60 points to 10,931 in opening trades and setting a new all-time intraday high just above 10,945.
The index extended Tuesday's 89-point rise despite renewed Gulf tensions and a rebound in oil prices.
Shell and BP provided support, up 1.3% and 1.5%, as crude prices rebounded.
Weir Group and Reckitt Benckiser led the gains, surging 7.7% and 6.8% following the pair's half-year results.
Glencore rose 4.4% after its update.
8am: Glencore trading profits soar
Glencore has reported profits at its commodities trading arm (which it calls its Marketing business) of around $3.3 billion in the first half, not far off the top end of its annual earnings guidance of $3.5 billion.
This was one of the titbits shares by CEO Gary Nagle in the group's production report.
He said he was "pleased to report a strong production performance for the first six months of the year, where our key assets largely performed in line with expectations and previously communicated guidance".
Full year production guidance for copper, zinc and nickel remains unchanged, while the mid-points of energy and steelmaking coal guidance are up by 1Mt and down by 1Mt, respectively.
7.48am: Ofgem proposes fees to purge 'speculative data centres'
Ofgem has proposed charging large data centre projects a commitment fee of up to £712,500 per megawatt as it seeks to remove speculative developments from Britain's congested electricity grid queue.
The energy regulator said the refundable fee would range from £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt – equivalent to around 2.5%-7.5% of average project costs.
Developers would pay when accepting a grid connection offer and recover the money once the project was energised. Those leaving the queue early would forfeit the fee.
The proposals follow a surge in contracted demand connection offers from 41 gigawatts to 125 gigawatts between November 2024 and June 2025. Data centres account for at least 73 gigawatts across 315 proposed projects.
Ofgem fears that many of these developments will never proceed but are occupying scarce capacity, delaying investment-ready schemes and distorting decisions about future network spending.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said viable projects should not be "held up by speculative applications", with the Ofgem consultation remaining open until September 16.
7.35am: Greggs heats up profits
Greggs has reported a sharp rise in first-half profit as new shop openings, grocery sales and tight cost control helped offset subdued consumer confidence.
However, the Tyneside bakery chain warned that additional supply-chain capacity is expected to result in second-half profit falling year on year, unless the consumer backdrop improves.
The board's expectations for the full-year outcome remained unchanged, chief executive Roisin Curry said, also highlighting "great progress" in improving supply chain infrastructure to support growth opportunities.
7.27am: 'Volatile market backdrop'
The resurgence in oil resulting from new strikes in the Middle East "leaves a volatile backdrop ahead of today’s FOMC decision, which is the most finely poised in years in terms of market pricing", says Peter Sidorov at Deutsche Bank.
Markets are ascribing a 32% chance of a rate hike today, as of last night, which Sidorov says is "the most uncertain that the market has been on whether the Fed will change rates going into a meeting since December 2018".
This comes after a two weeks of considerable volatility in how the market has adjusted expectations of a July hike, he adds, falling as low as 10% in mid-July following the soft June US CPI print but rising to as high as 38% on Monday.
"So with Chair Warsh shying away from policy guidance, we’ve seen one regime shift compared to the past few years when markets received a steer from officials’ commentary or via the financial press."
Today's "main event" will be the Fed’s policy decision, says Sidorov, following which the attention will shift to the earnings from Microsoft and Meta after the US close.
Before that, we also have earnings from Lam Research, ARM, L’Oreal, Hermes and Airbus. Data releases include UK June net consumer credit, M4, Germany June import price index, Italy May industrial sales, Australia June CPI, Sweden Q2 GDP indicator.
FTSE 100 Live: Subdued start expected amid Gulf tensions, wait for Fed decision
The FTSE 100 may be be searching for direction in early trading on Wednesday, as renewed tensions in the Gulf offset the momentum that had been building, with a much-anticipated decision from the US Federal Reserve coming later in the day.
Futures for London's blue-chip index have been wavering between a fall of 1-2 points and a rise of around 5-6 points, having yesterday added just over 89 points to close at 10,871. This was the highest level since the Iran war began and within sight of February's all-time high.
Oil prices rebounded sharply overnight after the US said it intercepted an Iranian attack against its bases in the Middle East. Brent crude rose 3.9% to $87.36 a barrel, having dropped below $83 in evening trading.
State media in Tehran reported that missiles were launched in response to "aggressive US actions", while the Revolutionary Guards said they targeted three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The renewed hostilities ended a pause that had helped Brent fall 16.5% over three sessions – its steepest three-day decline since April 2020.
Technology stocks are also under pressure after the latest rout in Asian chipmakers. South Korea's Kospi plunged 8.7%, with SK Hynix down 16.5% and Samsung falling 11%.
In London, companies reporting today include Glencore, Greggs, Reckitt Benckiser, Mobico, Sage Group, Aberdeen, Aston Martin, Weir, St James's Place, Rathbones, Nichols and many more.
Attention now turns to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated interest-rate decision this evening. US futures were lower ahead of the announcement, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.6%.
This followed a mixed session on Wall Street last night, with the Dow Jones climbing 537 points or 1% to close at 52,747 and the S&P 500 adding 0.2% to finish at a record high of 7,429. However, the Nasdaq slipped 0.2% to 24,877 as chip stocks remained under pressure.
