A calm start to the week on financial markets is a major relief given recent tech sector jitters.
All the major European indices moved higher, with the FTSE 100 led by mining stocks.
Ocado nudged higher on reports it will cut up to 1,000 jobs. Investors typically welcome such moves as it removes costs from a business. Ocado has been through a difficult period after certain clients scaled back their growth plans involving its warehouse technology.
Japanese shares rallied after Sanae Takaichi’s landslide election win. Investors are excited at the prospect of economic stimulus measures and the prime minister’s desire to drive corporate investment in the tech space.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 has risen 68% since April 2025 amid a weaker yen, which makes the country’s exports more competitive from a price perspective, and a shift in the political backdrop. That’s an unusually large movement for an equity index in such a short period.
Politics were front of mind for investors in the UK after the resignation of chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Gilt yields and the pound nudged slightly higher as markets digested ongoing speculation about the future of Keir Starmer as prime minister. Movement among government bonds and the currency suggests there is no panic on financial markets about the stability of the UK government.
InPost
FedEx has packaged up its next steps in the quest for global domination of the parcel delivery sector. It has teamed up with private equity group Advent and two other partners to buy Polish logistics provider InPost.
Rather than buy the company outright, FedEx will hold a 37% stake in a move that gives it decent exposure to any upside in InPost but also a way of spreading the risks if the deal doesn’t quite go to plan.
InPost has made a big name for itself in the UK as an alternative to Royal Mail, but the company has suffered from a slowdown in parcel volume growth in its homeland, ongoing competition and price pressures, and a legal dispute with Polish e-commerce platform, Allegro. Relations have soured between the two companies amid allegations that Allegro has violated terms of a delivery agreement.
Advent has history with InPost, having first bought a stake in 2017. While it sold down a big chunk in 2023, the company has remained on the shareholder register. It must see potential in reshaping the business through private ownership and out of the public spotlight.
Russ Mould: Investment Director
Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish...
