Shares & the stockmarket

  • 28 November 2025

    Rate cut hopes lift markets, Dell gets AI boost: what happened on US markets

    In 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...

    4 min read
    Author
    Dell logo
  • 27 November 2025

    Daily market update: FTSE 100 steady after Budget, gambling sector, Halfords

    After 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...

    4 min read
    Author
    halfords store front
  • 26 November 2025

    Why Alphabet’s Gemini 3 Pro is shaking up AI

    Google-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...

    3 min read
    Author
    three LLM app icons on a phone screen with gemini in the middle
  • 26 November 2025

    Daily market update: Nvidia, FTSE reshuffle, Pets at Home, Mobico

    While 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...

    5 min read
    Author
    owner with small dog in pet shop
  • 25 November 2025

    Discover how Eli Lilly joined the $1 trillion club

    With 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...

    4 min read
    Author
    Eli Lilly
  • 25 November 2025

    Daily market update: Domino’s Pizza, Hilton Foods and Treatt, Kingfisher

    UK 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...

    6 min read
    people boarding easyjet plane
  • 24 November 2025

    Daily market update: BHP, Rosebank Industries, M&C Saatchi

    Equities 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...

    4 min read
    Author
    BHP office building
  • 21 November 2025

    The risk of under-investing in a stock market bubble

    Talk 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...

    7 min read
    Author
    Stockmarket bubble
  • 21 November 2025

    Daily market update: markets go back into reverse, Babcock, ASOS

    Relief 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...

    5 min read
    two people pointing at laptop screen
  • 21 November 2025

    Stocks slump, Nvidia and Walmart beat: what happened on US markets this week

    After 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...

    5 min read
    Author
    walmart store front
  • 20 November 2025

    Daily market update: Nvidia, Games Workshop, JD Sports

    Nvidia’s reassuring results have brought a sense of calm to markets following a wobbly few days. Europe enjoyed a nice bounce, including a 0.7% gain from the FTSE 100 led by tech stocks, banks and natural resources firms.

    Investors had been cautious ahead of Nvidia’s results, fearing that the slightest bit of negative news from the chip giant...

    4 min read
    Author
    JD Sports store front
  • 19 November 2025

    Daily market update: Meta Platforms, Lloyds, Severn Trent

    Investors will breathe a sigh of relief that the market sell-off has lost momentum.

    Pockets of Europe and Asia were up on Wednesday, and futures prices imply a similar trend when Wall Street opens later today.

    It’s the good news everyone wanted. The key question is whether this is simply the calm before the storm. Nvidia reports tonight and the...

    5 min read
    Author
    lloyds bank
  • 18 November 2025

    Big Short investor claims technology firms are inflating profits

    Michael Burry shot to fame after the book The Big Short by Michael Lewis was turned into the Academy Award winning 2015 film of the same name with actor Christian Bale playing Burry’s character.

    Burry was one of the first people to spot the US housing market bubble and reportedly made $800 million profit from betting against sub-prime mortgages.

    Wh...
    3 min read
    Author
    Mortgage advisor with clients
  • 18 November 2025

    Daily market update: Imperial Brands, FirstGroup, Greencore

    Another downbeat session on Wall Street yesterday was followed by heavier selling in Asia today and that set the scene for a meaningful drop in the FTSE 100.

    As fears over an AI bubble build, there has rarely been more riding on an individual set of results than Nvidia’s on Wednesday.

    Even a mild disappointment could reinforce the market’s worries...

    4 min read
    Author
    greencore van
  • 17 November 2025

    Daily market update: WPP, housebuilders, Vinted, THG, HICL & TRIG

    The FTSE 100 managed a steady start on Monday despite volatility in Asian stocks and a lacklustre end to last week on Wall Street.

    Shares in Japanese consumer-facing stocks came under pressure as China warned its citizens not to visit the country amid simmering tensions between the two sides over Taiwan.

    Chinese holidaymakers make a big...

    5 min read
    Author
    woman drinking protein shake in kitchen
  • 14 November 2025

    Daily market update: gilt yields, DFS, Landsec, PPHE Hotel Group

    Wall Street gloom has spread across European and Asian markets like a contagious disease.

    Markets are down across the board as investors fret about cracks in the narrative that’s driven the mother of all tech rallies over the past few years. Investors are worried about rich equity valuations and how billions of dollars are being spent on AI just at...

    4 min read
    woman shopping for sofas
  • 14 November 2025

    AI, Disney and AMD: what happened on US markets this week

    US markets look set to end the week on the back foot as investors grow more sceptical of the AI boom. It represents a complete turnaround from the start of the week when hopes that the government shutdown would be resolved gave stocks a boost.

    By the time the Trump administration signed a bill to end the shutdown on 12 November, equity indices...

    5 min read
    Author
    Advanced Micro Devices
  • 13 November 2025

    Daily market update: Aviva, 3i Group, Burberry, Rolls-Royce

    The FTSE 100 was held back in its latest attempt to make the 10,000 summit by some shares trading ex-dividend and some poorly received corporate updates.

    This outweighed the tailwind provided by a weaker pound, which flatters the overseas earnings which dominate the index, and saw the FTSE 100 dip slightly in early trading on Thursday. Sterling...

    5 min read
    Author
    burberry store
  • 12 November 2025

    What a share price jump or slump tells you about a CEO hire

    The announcement of a new chief executive can have a pronounced impact on a company’s share price, good or bad. Guinness owner Diageo hiring former Tesco head Dave Lewis as its chief executive drove its share price up 5.2% on the day of the announcement.

    That might not sound out of the ordinary until you realise the change in the company’s market...

    6 min read
    reflection of a graph in a woman's glasses
  • 12 November 2025

    Daily market update: SoftBank sells Nvidia stake, SSE, Taylor Wimpey

    The FTSE 100 continued to tick towards the 10,000 mark as it eked out some modest gains to trade at fresh all-time highs on Wednesday.

    UK stocks made progress despite some volatility in the AI space in the US and Asia overnight. SoftBank’s decision to sell its entire stake in Nvidia dragged the chip maker lower and also saw selling in the Japanese...

    4 min read
    Author
    engineer inspecting electrical pylon