1. Voting kerfuffle for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
The pound was the best performing major currency after news emerged that a vote of no-confidence in prime minister Boris Johnson would take place in Westminster this evening.
2. Elon Musk in handbrake turn
Elon Musk made a U-turn on his plan to cut 10% of the electric car maker's workforce. He’s going to cut 20% … just kidding. "Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat," Musk tweeted. It’s almost like we can’t believe a single word he says.
3. Why are two US hedge funds so interested in an underperforming British housebuilder?
Possible answers: it’s cheap; it has good cash flow; it has lots of assets to flog off; all of the aforementioned.
4. FTSE not fazed by the prospect of political upheaval
At the close, the UK blue-chip index was 75.27 points, or 1% higher at 7,608.22, below the session peak of 7,646.66 but well above the day's early low of 7,532.84. Meanwhile Foreign exchange markets seemed to like the prospect of Boris Johnson getting to spend more time with his families, and equity investors did not seem too frightened by it either
5. AstraZeneca finds the market hard to please
The pharma giant reportedly received a standing ovation when it announced the results of its DESTINY-Breast04 clinical trials on metastatic breast cancer treatment at the seminal ASCO cancer conference on Sunday, but even so, its shares were among the few blue-chips to lose ground today.