After last week's market spasm over hints from Fed officials that rates may need to rise rather than fall due to the resilience of the US economy, this week the focus moved on to earnings with around one third of S&P 500 companies posting first-quarter updates. So far most firms have beaten estimates, leading to slim gains for the indices, but an increasing number have tempered their guidance f...

Investors bought in London at the open on Friday, with news led by Anglo American rejecting BHP's £31.1 billion takeover offer and Darktrace accepting a $5 billion private equity takeover offer. The FTSE 100 index opened up 42.14 points, 0.5%, at 8,121.00. The FTSE 250 was up 151.94 points, 0.8%, at 19,753.92, and the AIM All-Share was up 2.41 points, 0.3%, at 755.53. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0....

London's FTSE 100 pushed higher on Thursday, leaving peers on the continent and beyond in its wake, on share price rises for heavyweights AstraZeneca, Barclays and Unilever, as well as M&A impetus for Anglo American. Trade was underwhelming elsewhere, however, as equities struggled following a red-hot US inflation reading, which was coupled with numbers showing a slowdown in growth. The FTSE 10...

Stock prices were up in London heading into the afternoon on Thursday, with Anglo American leading the charge on confirming it was 'reviewing' a takeover bid from its larger Australian rival BHP Group. The FTSE 100 index was up 54.22 points, 0.7%, at 8,094.60. The FTSE 250 was down 20.05 points, 0.1%, at 19,699.32, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.33 of a point at 755.02. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0...

FTSE 100 mining group Anglo American (AAL) has huge iron ore, platinum, coal and, through its' controlling stake in dealer De Beers, diamonds, but make no mistake, BHP's (BHP) interest in the business is a big bet on copper. Copper is crucial to the world's renewables energy shift, acting as the blood and veins of a future electrically powered world, and demand is rising. London-based commodity...

Social media and technology outfit Meta Platforms (META:NASDAQ) saw its recent share price momentum stall in a big way overnight as investors fretted its 'year of efficiency' in 2023 would give way to a period of profligacy. At one point more than $200 billion had been wiped off the company's valuation as the shares fell 19% in after-hours trading. The trigger was the company's first-quarter up...

Shares in AstraZeneca (AZN) surged 5% to £119.3 closing in on a new 52-week high after first quarter revenue and earnings eclipsed market expectations and the pharmaceutical company reiterated full year guidance. After a few months of consolidation, the shares are back to winning ways and outperforming the FTSE 100 year to date. The pharma giant grew revenue 19% to $12.7 billion for the thr...

High-street lender Barclays (BARC) reported a drop in first-quarter pre-tax profit due to a combination of weaker net interest income and lower income from its investment bank, but the results were slightly ahead of market expectations. The shares gained as much as 9p or 4.5% to 200p, their highest level in over a year, as the firm stuck to its forecasts for return on equity and capital returns...

Investors in London bought at the open on Thursday, looking ahead to US GDP data this afternoon, while Anglo American shares jumped after it confirmed that it was 'reviewing' a takeover bid from its larger Australian rival BHP Group. The FTSE 100 index opened up 33.81 points, 0.4%, at 8,074.19. The FTSE 250 was down 98.85 points, 0.5%, at 19,620.52, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.60 of a poin...

Stocks in London ended in the red on Wednesday, despite the FTSE 100 hitting another record high earlier in the day, while Tesla was the star in New York, where wider markets mixed. The FTSE 100 index gave back 4.43 points, 0.1%, at 8,040.38. The blue-chip index traded as high as 8,092.19 earlier Wednesday, its best-ever level. Selling pressure in the afternoon prevented it from achieving anoth...

The UK's largest mortgage lender, Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY), delivered a weak first-quarter trading update with most of the key metrics seemingly heading in the wrong direction. The lack of mention of share buybacks or guidance on the dividend also disappointed investors, however confirmation of the bank's full-year targets saw the shares reverse their early losses and add 2% to 52.4p. REVENU...

AI (artificial intelligence) has dominated the chip conversation in recent months but from the sounds made by Texas Instruments (TXN:NASDAQ), the industry could be primed for a far more broadly-based demand bounce as the months roll forward. The Dallas-based business is the world's biggest manufacturer of analog semiconductors and embedded processors, doing simple but vital tasks such as conver...

Stock prices in London were up heading into the afternoon on Wednesday, with Reckitt jumping on a strong start to 2024, while Lloyds rose despite a fall in profit. The FTSE 100 index was up 38.40 points, 0.5%, at 8,083.21. The FTSE 250 was down 3.41 points at 19,796.31, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.1 of a point at 754.97. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.5% at 807.00, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.2% at...