Platinum prices soar amid supply deficit and AI demand May 18, 2026 Platinum group metals saw significant price gains over the course of 2025, after tightening physical supplies and increasing retail and institutional investor interest hiked costs. Platinum’s average price rocketed 33 per cent last year, hitting $1,280 (£985.5) per ounce, up from $960 the prior year, according to the latest report from Metals Focus. The price [...]
The City is paying the price for Britain’s energy failure May 18, 2026 High, unstable energy costs don’t stay in the energy sector. They get absorbed into operating margins, debt-service forecasts, insurance assumptions, infrastructure returns, and the discount rate applied to British assets, says Alan Chang The City does not need another price shock to understand Britain’s energy problem. Markets are already pricing the risk. Renewed tensions with [...]
M&S eyes up Brits’ weekly shops as food arm set to expand May 15, 2026 Marks & Spencer has not been shy over its ambition to conquer the British weekly shop, and the retail giant is nearing a crucial update on its foray into the UK’s fiercely competitive grocery market. M&S Food accounts for more than half (54 per cent) of the retailer’s revenues, and its recent warehouse expansions suggest [...]
Burnham return attempt ushers new borrowing cost record May 15, 2026 Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s attempt to return to parliament has alarmed traders as gilt yields reached another 28-year high, beating last week’s high. Burnham overcame the first hurdle on his path towards becoming Prime Minister after Josh Simons, the MP for Makerfield, announced he would resign on Thursday night to let the Manchester mayor try [...]
As it happened: UK borrowing costs rattled by Burnham’s Parliament bid May 15, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Andy Burnham has made his move – and it has left markets on edge. On Thursday evening, after markets had closed, a Labour MP sensationally announced their intention to stand aside to allow Burnham to make his way back into Parliament. And this morning it’s left gilt yields [...]
Reeves sends Labour MPs warning over bond market wrath May 14, 2026 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sent anxious Labour backbenchers a stark warning on the wrath of bond markets in a bold intervention. After walking into Downing Street on Thursday morning, the Chancellor told the BBC that leadership battles risked “plunging the country into chaos”. She demanded that backbenchers maintained support for the Prime Minister as she [...]
Charging up: National Grid to invest a further £70bn into energy networks May 14, 2026 National Grid has confirmed its commitment to invest an additional £70bn across the next five years into energy networks across the UK and US, as it continues its pivot towards becoming a net-zero energy system. The FTSE 100 company doubled down on its ambition to invest in energy infrastructure in its latest financial results, which [...]
King’s Speech: Under Labour, Britain looks like a bad bet May 13, 2026 Today’s King’s Speech offered no solutions, just a failing government doubling down on its mistakes, says Mel Stride The King’s Speech will not restore confidence. It will not tame inflation. It will not bring borrowing down. And it certainly will not convince markets that under Keir Starmer’s Labour, Britain has a government with a grip [...]
Pension fund snaps up cut-price government bonds amid Starmer sell-off May 13, 2026 One of the UK’s largest pension funds has jumped on the turmoil that speculation over Keir Starmer’s future has unleashed on the gilt market, scooping up government bonds at multi-decade low valuations. Standard Life has added to its holding of UK government debt, City AM understands, seizing on a sharp dip in the of the [...]
Labour leadership turmoil to cost Reeves up to £12bn May 13, 2026 Labour’s political infighting could cost Chancellor Rachel Reeves up to £12bn, analysis by a Wall Street bank has suggested. Hot-tempered bond markets and stunted growth – a consequence of further political instability – would knock around £12bn off the Chancellor’s fiscal headroom, Goldman Sachs warned. While the £12bn hit to public finances would not erase [...]