FTSE 100 Live: Inflation falls to near year-low; BAE leads stock rally February 18, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Inflation has fallen to a near year-low this morning hitting its slowest pace since March and fuelling hopes that the Bank of England will take the chop to interest rates next month. New data from the Official for National Statistics showed rose the Consumer Price [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Unemployment rises; Debenhams’ £35m raise February 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The UK unemployment rate has risen again this morning, with fresh data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing the rate had surged to 5.2 per cent in the three months to December 2025. This was up from 5.1 per cent in the latest [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Zurich and Beazley £8bn deal gets time; Defence and bank stocks rally February 16, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The first round of 2026 tech wobbles kicked into action last week and revived fears of an AI bubble. When Anthropic released a new AI tool designed to help in-house legal teams triage agreements and draft routine responses, the reaction trickled down through law firms straight into [...]
Brewdog calls time as advisers brought in to assess bidders February 14, 2026 Independent craft beer brewer, Brewdog, has called in advisers to oversee a sale that could trigger a break-up of one of Scotland’s well-known businesses. The board of Brewdog, which brands include Punk IPA and Elvis Juice, has appointed restructuring experts Alix Partners to attract interest from potential bidders, first reported by Sky News. Sources said [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Natwest bumper dividend, stocks tick up February 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The City was left stunned yesterday after Schroders entered into a surprise £10bn deal with Nuveen, which holds $1.4tn in assets, after speculation of a sale was rebuffed in July. Schroders Group chief Richard Oldfield had previously squashed rumours that the Schroder family, who control [...]
LSEG, Sage, Rightmove shares fall as Anthropic AI rattles markets February 4, 2026 Shares in global software giants tumbled again on Wednesday morning as the latest AI innovation from Anthropic rattled global markets. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) extended Tuesday’s losses falling near two per cent in early trading to lows of 6,774.00p before clawing back some gains. Meanwhile Rightmove led the index’s fallers, with a slump [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Beazley seals $15bn Zurich deal, Santander in $12bn takeover February 4, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Shares in Europe’s biggest data, publishing and legal software groups slumped on Tuesday after AI giant Anthropic unveiled a new tool aimed directly at in-house lawyers. The move rattled investors who had long viewed the sector as an AI winner. In London, Relx fell close [...]
Big banks bet on gold rally as metals channel meme stock February 3, 2026 It’s all over for doughnuts and cameras as social media’s retail investors set their sights on a new favourite investment meme. Precious metals’ start to 2026 has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. Gold rose 65 per cent last year, hitting multiple fresh records as geopolitical tensions flared. Investors flocked to the traditional safe-haven asset [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Gold back on climb; Musk’s major Space X merger February 3, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. It was quite the day for the FTSE 100 on Monday, with the index getting swept in the global metals sell-off in early trading before clawing its way out of the red and enjoying a steady stream of gains all the way to a record [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Gold rally eases; Trump warns UK on China trade January 30, 2026 Good morning and welcome to the Morning Wire liveblog. As we round off the first month of trading, miners have dominated market activity. After becoming the FTSE 100’s top riser in 2025, gold miner Fresnillo has continued with gains in the new year, netting 20 per cent already. This is an inch below the FTSE [...]