FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jittery as Starmer makes play to reopen Strait of Hormuz April 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The UK and France are set to co-chair a meeting with allies later today in a bid to strum up ways to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The vital waterway, which sits off Iran’s coast, sees around a fifth of the world’s oil supply flow [...]
Allbirds shares rockets as shoe brand pivots to AI April 16, 2026 Shares in Allbirds surged by over 580 per cent after the struggling shoe brand unveiled a dramatic pivot into AI, betting on soaring demand for tech infrastructure to revive its fortunes. The Nasdaq-listed firm said it had secured $50m (£37m) in convertible financing to shift into an ‘AI compute infrastructure’ business, focusing on buying high-performance [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks tumble amid Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade April 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Markets are returning from the weekend to a major blow in hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East. After Donald Trump revealed his two-week reprieve on strikes whilst negotiations begin, those very talks now look to be hanging by a thread. Vice President JD [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jittery as North Sea oil prices smash record April 10, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Markets are continuing to digest the ever-changing narrative coming out of the conflict in the Middle East but even as hopes of a peace deal rise, the economic overhang still threatens to send shocks across the country. In a speech by Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing [...]
Oil soars as Trump vows to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ April 2, 2026 The price of oil has spiked by over 7 per cent following Donald Trump’s vow to keep hitting Iran ‘extremely hard’ over the next few weeks, in an address to the nation. After a 17-minute speech on Wednesday evening, which failed to reassure global markets, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 5 per cent [...]
Rolls-Royce: FTSE 100 giant’s shares tumble amid market storm March 27, 2026 Shares in City heavyweight Rolls-Royce sank on Friday morning as the firm got wrapped up in the market storm triggered by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The FTSE 100 giant’s stock slumped nearly three per cent in mid-morning trading, sending its price crashing to 2026 low of 1,116.77p. Over the last month, the [...]
‘Mortgage mayhem’: Banks’ rates soar past 5.5 per cent amid Iran war volatility March 25, 2026 The UK mortgage market has been flipped upside down with Brits facing higher prices to borrow in the short-term as the Iran war rattles the economy. The average five-year fixed deal for a homeowner has spiked to 5.54 per cent this morning, up from 4.95 per cent at the start of March, according to financial [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Diploma leads stocks as pound ticks up; Oil dips March 18, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.8 per cent higher on Tuesday at 10,403.60p. The gains were accompanied by a stronger performance from the pound, which finished up $1.334 by the time London markets closed, compared to $1.329 on Monday. Sterling and the City were [...]
Boku boss: Nasdaq is no ‘silver bullet’ for fintech listings March 17, 2026 The boss of one of the London market’s fastest growing fintech companies has warned flocking to a listing on Wall Street is no “silver bullet” for firms seeking deeper liquidity than what’s on offer in the City. Stuart Neal, the chief executive of Boku, told Morning Wire shifting the firm’s listing across the Atlantic would [...]
Starling on hunt for new chair as Deloitte veteran bows out March 17, 2026 UK fintech Starling is on the hunt for a new chair following the news the firm’s current head would exit later this year. Starling said on Tuesday that David Sproul, the bank’s chair since October 2021, would step down once a successor is appointed. Sproul joined Starling after a near two-decade long career at Big [...]