Daily market update: Glencore, Legal & General, Novo Nordisk, Snapchat

“After running out of steam and slipping into the red in the latter part of yesterday’s trading session, the FTSE 100 made another modest move higher on Wednesday,” says AJ Bell Head of Financial Analysis Danni Hewson.

“Concern around tariffs continues to swirl as Indian stocks slipped thanks to Trump administration threats to impose higher levies on India for buying and selling Russian oil.

“However, a more positive tone on trade talks with China meant most other Asian markets closed higher overnight. An agreement between Washington and Beijing would remove the last remaining big uncertainty around tariffs as a 12 August deadline approaches.

“A weak PMI reading for the US services sector helped put Wall Street on the back foot on Wednesday and a disappointing set of earnings from chip maker Advanced Micro Devices saw its shares slump in after-hours trading.

“Attention will turn to numbers from McDonald’s, Walt Disney and Uber Technologies later as investors continue to pick through how companies are faring against an uncertain backdrop.”

Glencore

“News Glencore is shelving plans for a New York listing may be good news for the London market.

“However, rather than being a ringing endorsement of the merits of a UK listing, it may instead reflect the fact the company is not exactly in the best place to appeal to a new investor base elsewhere.

“The company’s first-half results saw deepening losses. In part this was due to lower commodity prices, something outside Glencore’s control, but production was also lower, hinting at operational issues.

“Unlike several of its peers Glencore has stuck with thermal coal and weakness in this market is not making that decision look too smart just at the moment.

“There will also be concern about the company’s mounting debt pile. Glencore may well now have to channel more of its capital into improving the balance sheet rather than being able to reward shareholders as generously as it has in the past.

“The company is looking to take significant costs out of the business and expects a big improvement in second half production – it really needs to deliver these efficiencies and this improvement in output to get the market back on side.”

Legal & General

“After a decent run for the shares, a modest beat of expectations was not enough to get investors excited about Legal & General.

“The company is benefiting from significant growth in the pension buyout market where firms pay insurers to take on their pension liabilities.

“Having already sold its US protection business and announced a partnership with Japanese insurance giant Meiji Yasuda, CEO António Simões is continuing the process of reshaping the business after more than 18 months in the hot seat.

“The market reaction to these solid but unspectacular numbers shows investors are likely to keep Simões on his toes.”

Novo Nordisk

“Appropriately enough for a company whose fortunes are heavily tied to anti-obesity drugs, but no doubt to the significant disappointment of its shareholders, Novo Nordisk’s market value has really slimmed down in 2025.

“Given the major profit warning announced last week, the company’s latest earnings are a bit of a sideshow but they do underscore how the company is losing ground on its rivals and the scale of the challenge facing newly appointed CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar.

“Replacing Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, who was ousted in May, Doustdar will need to demonstrate he can bring costs under control and win back share in an increasingly competitive market.”

Snap

“The latest earnings from the owner of Snapchat suggests the social media platform may be losing some of its relevance in a highly competitive market.

“While several peers have announced better than expected levels of average revenue per user – Snap came in below expectations on this key metric.

“While Snapchat still has a large number of users globally, and is attracting sign-ups to its subscription service, the market will be aware that its core demographic can be capricious in their social media habits.”

NIESR £41 billion black hole

“It’s always going to be tough for a Labour government to find ways to cut back on public spending, but for a government that has already fallen foul of an unruly backbench, that task has become even harder.

“With commitments to cut NHS waiting times, increase spending on national defence and pledges to improve state education to enhance social mobility, even taking a salami slicer to other departments isn’t going to do much to balance the books.

“The chancellor could consider relaxing, rewriting or ridding herself of her self-imposed fiscal rules, but bond markets are still looking feisty and one wrong move could send borrowing costs soaring even higher, effectively cancelling out any headroom she might create.

“If Disney were in the business of writing Budgets, this one would come off the back of an unprecedented growth spurt, padding Treasury coffers with golden fruit from that magic money forest. But the UK’s finances look more like a Scandi Noir than a saccharine musical, and Rachel Reeves must be feeling the confines of her economic box about now as she tries to have her cake, eat it and not put on an ounce.

“To spend more, you either have to make more money, or borrow it. The government wants to deliver on its election pledges; it wants to keep its election promises not to raise taxes on working people, and fiscal rules have proved to be the chancellor’s armour.

“With the absence of many choices the Treasury is probably going to have to get creative and find ways to raise taxes that can be sold as not raising taxes, like an extension of the freeze on tax thresholds.

“A wealth tax or an equalisation of capital gains tax with income rates could well provide low hanging fruit. But they will be deeply unpopular and might not raise the kind of cash cushion that’s really needed.”