Daily market update: SpaceX, Next, Glencore

The FTSE 100 ticked higher on positively received corporate updates and as hopes continue to rise around diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

There is increasing optimism about a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz which means Brent crude oil prices are currently bubbling around the $80 per barrel mark, well short of their recent highs.

The mining sector did much of the heavy lifting for the FTSE 100 after Glencore’s bumper results, though HSBC remained out in the cold after the scale of its buyback announced alongside yesterday’s results continued to disappoint investors.

SpaceX

As visual metaphors go the fact a SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon hours after it had delivered its debut quarterly earnings feels almost too on the nose.

Having fallen below its IPO price in recent weeks, SpaceX actually regained some momentum in the hours leading up to the results but surrendered most of the gains in extended trading. The problem wasn’t so much the numbers themselves, as revenue beat expectations and losses were narrower than anticipated, but the heavy AI spending revealed in the results.

This is something the market has taken exception to at many of SpaceX’s peers and the scale of the outlays on artificial intelligence and how much over and above they were on analysts’ expectations were key factors behind the backlash. A significant difference between SpaceX and some of the other free spending participants in the AI arms race is that it does not yet generate meaningful levels of cash flow.

Right now, it’s no secret that the Starlink satellite internet business generates most of the money SpaceX takes in, along with renting out data centres. In the earnings call Elon Musk suggested Starlink could build a terrestrial mobile network to compete with the likes of T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon.

This has sparked some nervousness and seen these established names take a bit of a share price hit. Though Musk has lots of things on his to-do list at SpaceX, so there may be hopes in the boardrooms of these businesses that other areas take priority.

Starlink is not necessarily why many shareholders are on board. Many will be prepared to face some turbulence in the hope Musk’s grander visions around colonising Mars, data centres in space and building lunar bases can be realised.

The next key test of investor confidence in the story comes on Thursday this week as the first lockup expiry lands – with more than 900 million shares potentially up for sale. Many of these will be held by insiders whose entry point was significantly below the $135 IPO price, providing an incentive to sell even in light of the recent indifferent showing for the stock.

Questions are also likely to persist about a tie-up with Tesla, something Musk and other SpaceX executives didn’t rule out. For many investors in both SpaceX and Tesla their interest is linked to Musk’s entrepreneurship, so bringing his entire empire under one roof is an idea which may continue to get plenty of airtime.

Next

Next’s playbook as a public company looks simple on the face of it but its ability to pull off the under-promise and overdeliver trick time after time is anything but.

Yet another better-than-expected update and round of upgrades helped lift the shares to within sight of their recent all-time highs.

The first-quarter slowdown linked to the Middle East conflict has proved to be short-lived and the subsequent rebound in the second quarter is genuinely eye-catching, supported by exceptionally strong overseas growth.

Warm weather helped drive sales in the UK and sales of third-party products on its platform continue to be a notable feature of its success – own-brand sales were less inspiring, with a modest decline online and in-store sales flat.

Unsurprisingly Next has been fairly conservative with its forward guidance, mindful no doubt of a tricky consumer backdrop and of giving itself a bar it can later clear. But today’s announcement confirms Next’s credentials as a retailer without rival in the UK and one with increasingly international horizons.

Glencore

The mining sector was one area where the UK market enjoyed healthy representation, but Glencore’s announcement it will seek a secondary listing in Australia will raise fears this position could be further chipped away.

The revelation accompanied a strong set of results – helped by a commodities trading division which saw a boost from market volatility linked to rising geopolitical tensions.

Margins in its mining operations were also helped by significant increases in metals prices too.

This allowed Glencore to take a meaningful chunk out of its debt pile while still rewarding shareholders with a special dividend and share buyback, which represented an advance on the already generous returns served up in 2026.