5 December 2025
Unilever investors to get shares in new ice cream company – what you need to knowConsumer goods firm Unilever is one of the largest companies on the UK stock market and is about to go through a significant change. Find out what is happening when and what it means for shareholders.
What’s happening?Last year, Unilever announced plans to separate its ice cream business and focus on four different areas – beauty and wellbeing...
5 December 2025
Daily market update: FTSE 100, Unilever ice cream demerger, OcadoThe FTSE 100 made a steady start on Friday morning as investors await a key release on US inflation.
The market is increasingly betting on an interest rate cut when the Federal Reserve meets on 10 December and mixed employment data this week has done little to dampen those expectations which, in turn, have helped drive recent gains for equities.
Th...
5 December 2025
Stocks quiet ahead of Fed meeting, and Microsoft lowers AI quotasUS markets were in a holding pattern this week ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on 10 December, when it is widely anticipated to deliver a quarter percentage point cut.
Prospects for further rate cuts gave impetus to the small cap Rusell 2000 index which gained more than 1% to notch up fresh all-time highs.
The technology-heavy...
4 December 2025
The biggest risers and fallers of the FTSE 100 this yearThe FTSE 100 is on track for its seventh best year ever, with its highest return since the aftermath of the global financial crisis*. So much for the UK being the home for old economy companies – the FTSE 100 has had precisely the ingredients desired by investors in a year full of political, trade and market uncertainty. The FTSE 100 has returned...
4 December 2025
Five key lessons from financial markets in 2025The combination of Liberation Day’s tariffs, wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, worries over the long-term impact of Artificial Intelligence upon jobs, galloping government debts and stretched budgets, and active debate about stock market bubbles does not look like a favourable one for investors. However, many will look back upon 2025 with...
4 December 2025
Daily market update: Meta, utilities, Rio Tinto, Future, FrasersThe FTSE 100 drifted in early trading on Thursday, dragged down by weakness in the mining and energy sectors.
Weaker-than-expected US unemployment data may have further firmed up expectations of a rate cut when the Federal Reserve meets next week. However, this is not ‘new news’ for investors and the indifferent performance of stocks in the UK and...
3 December 2025
Is the FTSE 100 gearing up for its latest Santa Rally?Since its launch in 1984, the FTSE 100 index has gained 2.1% on average in December, whereas April and July are the only other months to offer an average advance of 1% or more.
If you want to know why markets talk about the Santa Rally, that is why – because the numbers back it up. Quite why the Santa Rally should occur is less clear.
Investors...
3 December 2025
How weight-loss drugs are driving demand for fashion makeoversFast fashion retailer Boohoo, now trading as Debenhams, has just seen its shares surge more than 100% over the course of a week as investors become more hopeful about its recovery plan.
The return to profitable growth announced on 27 November was certainly a tonic for Boohoo but a longer-term potential boost to the company and other retailers such...
3 December 2025
Daily market update: Sainsbury’s, HSBC, Thames Water, Prada & VersaceMiners did their best to prop up the FTSE 100, but opposing forces from the banking, pharma and utility sectors were too great to keep the index in positive territory.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was a notable mover, falling 1.3% as nearly all sectors apart from basic materials and industrials were in the red. China’s CSI 300 index was also weak...
2 December 2025
Daily market update: banks, Topps Tiles, On The BeachA robust showing from the UK banking sector following financial stress tests wasn’t enough to spur the FTSE 100 into action.
Miners and healthcare stocks acted as a drag on the blue-chip index, leaving the FTSE 100 flat and only achieving minimal gains in early trading.
In Germany, chemicals group Bayer soared by 13% after the Trump administration...
1 December 2025
Daily market update: oil, gold, Tesla, HICL & TRIG merger off, SolGoldThe FTSE 100 dipped in early trading on Monday despite post-Thanksgiving gains for US markets last week.
Further selling in cryptocurrencies reflected a risk-off mood as did some volatility in Asian markets – with Japan’s Nikkei 225 seeing material weakness.
This followed a move higher for the yen, which affects the competitiveness of Japan’s...
28 November 2025
Daily market update: FTSE 100 steady, Whitbread, Burberry, Mitchells & ButlersThe FTSE 100 looks set to end the week in decent fashion and US futures point to post-Thanksgiving gains when Wall Street opens for business.
UK housebuilders remain in decent fettle after the Budget – which didn’t contain any nasty surprises in terms of property taxes, bar the so-called ‘mansion tax’.
The exception to the sector’s positivity is...
28 November 2025
Rate cut hopes lift markets, Dell gets AI boost: what happened on US marketsIn a week foreshortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, US stocks bounced back as expectations for a pre-Christmas rate cut gathered steam.
This had looked to be off the table thanks to the impact of the US government shutdown on data releases but recent comments from Federal Reserve officials have raised hopes of a cut on 10 December. This helped...
27 November 2025
Russ Mould: A look at NewRiver Retail, Paragon Banking & Frasers ahead of their updatesRuss Mould runs us through the companies schedule to report in the coming week, and takes a specific look at what analysts will be studying when NewRiver Retail, Paragon Banking and Frasers report next week.
27 November 2025
Daily market update: FTSE 100 steady after Budget, gambling sector, HalfordsAfter yesterday’s Budget-related drama, there is a quieter feel to markets this morning.
The FTSE 100 was flat in early trading after gains in Asia and yesterday in the US on rate cut hopes, with a decent showing for retailers balanced out by weakness in the property and mining space.
After seeing considerable volatility yesterday amid leaks and...
26 November 2025
Why Alphabet’s Gemini 3 Pro is shaking up AIGoogle-owner Alphabet released its latest AI chatbot Gemini 3 Pro to rave reviews on 18 November, raising the stakes in the AI race and challenging the dominance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff took to social media to say he is never going back to ChatGPT after using Gemini for just two hours. "The leap in insane. It feels like the...
26 November 2025
Daily market update: Nvidia, FTSE reshuffle, Pets at Home, MobicoWhile it may feel as if the Budget is the only story of the day, the UK stock market is a broader church and its plethora of international earnings means the index is driven by more than just UK activities.
The FTSE 100 was lifted by miners and technology names amid growing hopes for a US interest rate cut and a new contender to dethrone Nvidia as...
25 November 2025
Discover how Eli Lilly joined the $1 trillion clubWith all the focus on AI and Nvidia’s latest quarterly earnings, it would be easy to miss Eli Lilly becoming the first healthcare company to be valued by the market at $1 trillion.
How has the company got to this point and why should it matter to investors?The pharmaceutical business joins just a handful of technology companies and Warren Buffett...
25 November 2025
Daily market update: Domino’s Pizza, Hilton Foods and Treatt, KingfisherUK stocks are shaking off a dicey end to last week as increased hopes of a pre-Christmas interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve give stocks on both sides of the Atlantic a boost.
Tech stocks powered the recovery on Wall Street yesterday and fostered hope of a Santa Rally as we approach the beginning of December. Google-owner Alphabet is closing...
24 November 2025
Daily market update: BHP, Rosebank Industries, M&C SaatchiEquities up, gold down, bitcoin stable – this is a remarkably different picture than last week’s troubling scenes that dogged financial markets.
It suggests investors have had time to collect their thoughts over the weekend, and to start the new week in a calmer mood. It also helps that Ukraine peace talks have dominated the news agenda, giving...
21 November 2025
The risk of under-investing in a stock market bubbleTalk of a stock market bubble is everywhere right now, and for good reason. Valuations in the US stock market are sky high and the enormous technology companies sitting atop the S&P 500 are venturing into an unpredictable AI future, burning through tens of billions of shareholder dollars in their quest not to be left buried in a digital junkyard...
21 November 2025
Russ Mould: Analysts on easyJet, Telecom Plus & Kingfisher ahead of forthcoming resultsAlthough the UK budget will likely take over the headlines, AJ Bell's Investment Director, Russ Mould, runs us through the companies schedule to report in the coming week, and takes a specific look at what analysts will be studying when easyJet, Telecom Plus and Kingfisher report next week.
21 November 2025
Daily market update: markets go back into reverse, Babcock, ASOSRelief around Nvidia’s results didn’t last long as investors couldn’t shake their fears that the AI boom might have got ahead of itself.
There is a lingering concern that the AI revolution might take longer than expected to truly transform the way companies do business. People in the late 1990s were right to predict the internet would change the...
21 November 2025
Stocks slump, Nvidia and Walmart beat: what happened on US markets this weekAfter having seemed initially to provide US investors with the reassurance they needed, Nvidia saw a reversal in fortunes this week.
Initially surging 5% as earnings beat forecasts the shares ended the 20 November down 3% as concern about valuations and a possible AI bubble took hold once more and the Vix index of volatility surged.
Bitcoin...
20 November 2025
Nvidia reassures on AI trend, but fears over tech sector overspending may not go awayNvidia’s results on 19 November had the potential to be a make-or-break moment for global financial markets. Any disappointment could have fuelled concerns around an AI bubble poised to burst. Fortunately, Nvidia has brought the party back to life, with suggestions that everything is going fine with the business.
Demand for its products remains...
