Takaichi’s gamble paid off, but can she keep investor interest high? February 18, 2026 Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, roared to victory last week in the biggest landslide election win in postwar history, with voters encouraged by her pledges to revitalise the tired economy. Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 316 seats, more than two-thirds of seats in parliament’s lower house, granting the prime minister a ‘super-majority’. [...]
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 [...]
Antofagasta’s shares dip despite soaring revenue February 17, 2026 London listed Mining company Antofagasta saw its share’s dip in early morning trading despite reporting a rise in revenue, driven by increased commodity prices and booming demand. The Chilean based group recorded a 30 per cent jump in revenue to $8.6bn (£6.3bn), reflecting copper prices reaching record highs in 2025, coupled with the rising prices [...]
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 [...]
The markets are getting it wrong on AI risk February 13, 2026 Concerns that AI will make entire sectors obsolete are overblown. These are not companies encountering AI for the first time, yet markets appear to be pricing them as if adaptation is impossible, says Michael Clark The repeated sell-offs triggered by new AI product launches suggest markets are struggling to distinguish between headlines and reality. Each [...]
Barratt Redrow and MJ Gleeson join house builder call for help: What is going on? February 11, 2026 Over the past few months, a number of house builders have called for help, after positive results were offset by the expectation that the state of the housing market would impact further growth. The builders have chorused the same warning to the government and wider property sector that further buyer recovery and support is needed [...]
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 [...]
Asian markets surge after Takaichi secures historic election victory February 9, 2026 Japanese stocks surged to a record high on Monday, while wider Asian markets also experienced a boost, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party secured a historic election victory. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secured 316 out of 465 seats in Sunday’s election, winning a two-thirds super majority. In response, the Nikkei 225 rocketed [...]