Alibaba unveils new AI chip as Nvidia’s China headache deepens August 29, 2025 China’s tech giants are racing to plug the gap left by Washington’s export bans, with Alibaba rolling out a new AI processor designed to replace Nvidia’s restricted H20 chip. The e-commerce titan, now also the country’s largest cloud-computing group, said the chip is more versatile than its predecessors and is aimed squarely at domestic AI [...]
‘Inflation fears’ and trade turmoil to reinforce sterling rally August 28, 2025 A fresh bout of inflation and Donald Trump’s capricious approach to trade policy should extend the pound’s rally well into next year, according to a top investment bank which has raised its 12-month forecast for sterling against the dollar. Panmure Liberum’s Simon French said the recent string of hotter-than-expected inflation readings in the UK was [...]
Nvidia stock dips despite record quarter as uncertainty spooks markets August 28, 2025 Nvidia’s earnings once again beat expectations last night, but the AI chipmaker’s shares slipped in after-hours trading due to ongoing uncertainty over China. The Silicon Valley-based group, now worth more than $4tn (£3.1tn) reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $46.7bn, up 56 per cent year on year, with adjusted earnings per share of $1.05. Both figures came in [...]
Borrowing costs surge as gilts close in on 27-year low August 26, 2025 Long-dated gilts plunged to a near 27-year low on Tuesday, bringing the UK’s fragile fiscal position into even sharper relief in the run-up to the government’s second Budget this Autumn. The yield on 30-year UK government bonds, which moves inversely to the price, jumped by as much as nine basis points to 5.63 per cent, [...]
Is the UK’s digital services tax at risk from a US tariff threat? August 26, 2025 The Digital Services Tax (DST), a two per cent levy on the revenues of major tech firms, has become a key point of friction in the UK’s transatlantic relationship with the US. The tax, which came into force in 2020, was designed to address an imbalance where global tech giants generate significant revenue from British [...]
Trump says he will fire Federal Reserve governor August 26, 2025 President Donald Trump has said that he is firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. The unprecedented move would constitute a sharp escalation in his battle to exert greater control over what has long been considered a financial institution independent from day-to-day politics. Mr Trump said in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform that [...]
Dovish Powell hints at more rate cuts in US August 22, 2025 The Federal Reserve is likely to cut US interest rates at its next decision in September, Jay Powell has said, despite the country’s softening labour market being in conflict with upward pressure in prices from Donald Trump’s tariffs. In an eagerly anticipated address at the Jackson Hole symposium, the Fed chair highlighted slower economic growth, [...]
Standard Chartered shares rally after US rejects whistleblower claims August 22, 2025 Shares in Standard Chartered rallied on Friday after it emerged the US government has rejected whistleblower claims that it breached sanctions rules. Allegations over the banking giant’s practices had courted the attention of US president Donald Trump, who last week took to Truth Social to post a link to an article about the claims published [...]
How the banking net zero fantasy ran out of gas August 20, 2025 Over the past year, the world’s biggest banks‘ net zero enthusiasm has quickly and quietly dried up. Top lenders have backtracked, diluted or outright abandoned their environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies. The return of President Donald Trump has been highlighted as a turning point for green finance with firms across the financial industry turning sour [...]
Defence: Babcock, BAE, Rolls-Royce plunge on Ukraine summit August 19, 2025 London-listed defence stocks plunged across the board on Tuesday, after this week’s talks between Washington and Ukraine led traders to pare back bets on the role that European countries will play in any post-ceasefire peacekeeping efforts. Shares in FTSE-100 engineering group Babcock – one of the best performing companies on the London Stock Exchange this [...]