FTSE 100 Live: Unemployment rises; Debenhams’ £35m raise February 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM 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 [...]
Babcock shares surge as Starmer calls for Europe to ‘step up’ on defence February 16, 2026 Shares in Britain’s defence giants rallied on Monday morning as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called for Europe to “step up” on defence spending. Babcock – which plays a key role in the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet as well as naval, land and air operations – surged nearly four per cent in early trading to [...]
Gloomy Brits’ sluggish spending set to drag on economic growth February 16, 2026 Brits continued to tighten their pockets in January as economists warned sluggish spend from consumers could trigger a “sustained drag on economic growth“. S&P Global’s latest Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) showed a reading of 44.8, indicating further deterioration across household confidence with the figure remaining below the 50.0 mark that indicates neutrality. Whilst it crept [...]
Employment Rights Act set to stall hiring, says report February 16, 2026 The government’s new package of employment rights will put a brake on hiring, according to a new report, as businesses worry about the possible risks and costs. More than a third (37 per cent) of businesses surveyed by the the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) plan to reduce hiring permanent staff as a [...]
Inflation tipped to fall to year-low in boost to interest rate cuts February 16, 2026 Inflation is tipped to fall back to its lowest level for nearly a year in a busy week for UK economic data, with hopes the drop will help accelerate the Bank of England’s rate-cutting cycle. Economists are expecting the Office for National Statistics to show a sharp reprieve in the Consumer Price Index – the [...]
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 City AM 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 [...]
Most people have no idea how good AI is – and they’ll be the first to go February 12, 2026 A viral post from an AI investor warns most people have no idea how good AI is, or how quickly it will come for their jobs. Will it come for mine? Maybe. A couple of weeks ago I looked at the essay written by Anthropic’s co-founder in which he expressed his fears that humanity won’t [...]
GDP: UK faces ‘most dismal decade for growth in 100 years’ February 12, 2026 The UK economy had a minor expansion in the fourth quarter of 2025 coming a touch below expectations as an expected boost from the services sector failed to come to fruition. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the economy expanded a sluggish 0.1 per cent in three months to December 2025. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Schroders in £10bn deal; UK economic growth lags February 12, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. It was another record day for the FTSE 100 on Wednesday, which secured its highest close of all time. On a strong day for commodity-related stocks in London, London’s blue-chip index closed 1.14 per cent higher at 10,472p. But it wasn’t all cheery in the [...]
Am I going to be replaced by AI? February 12, 2026 With each passing day it seems another sector suffers an AI-induced wobble on the stock market. We saw the large data companies lose billions in value when a new legal-focused AI tool was launched; we saw the owners of consumer and personal finance platforms take a hit as AI agents upped their game; and yesterday [...]