FTSE 100 Live: Inflation falls to near year-low; BAE leads stock rally February 18, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM 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 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 [...]
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 [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Natwest bumper dividend, stocks tick up February 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM 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 [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Heathrow traffic record; Homebuilders call for help February 11, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Yesterday the FTSE 100 retreated on a slew of miserable corporate news. Leading the blue-chip index’s downturn was BP, which announced it would suspend its share buyback programme and increase cost-cutting goals as it looks to reverse its fortunes in the next financial year. The [...]
Bank of England Live: Interest rates held in narrow 5-4 call February 5, 2026 Good morning and welcome to the City AM liveblog. The Bank of England’s monetary committee has decided to hold rates in its first meet of the year. Markets – and City AM‘s own Shadow MPC – had placed their bets on a hold as the Bank continues its gradual chop to the base rate. In [...]
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 City AM 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 [...]
Irn-Bru maker shares jump after snapping up soft drinks rivals for £50m February 3, 2026 The drinks merchant behind Irn-Bru is forecasting a major boost to profit for the latest financial year after the firm stripped back costs and snapped up a pair of its soft drink rivals. AG Barr, which owns brands such as Boost, Funkin Cocktails and Rubicon, told markets it had sealed a near-£38m deal to buy [...]