The biggest selling point for the UK stock market in recent months has been its slow, steady, boring nature. This is a quality that should not be taken for granted. The era dominated by whizz-bang, US tech-led stocks is fading. Sure, it made a good shot at reasserting itself in the final months of last
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Since Wael Sawan took charge at Shell two months ago, staff and investors say he has been focused on one thing above all others: its share price. Shell’s stock rallied 37 per cent last year as it made a record $40bn in profits from the turmoil in energy markets unleashed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of
On the face of it, TikTok makes for an unlikely threat to national security. With its snackable, seconds-long videos of viral dances and comical voice-overs, it is one of the most used apps in the west, and embedded in the culture of a generation of young people. It now claims more than 1bn users worldwide
Volkswagen plans to open two new factories in North America to spearhead its push into the electric vehicle market, which the German carmaker says has become more appealing since US president Joe Biden unveiled more than $400bn in clean energy incentives. VW said on Friday that it would open a new assembly plant in Columbia,
The Moscow-born far-right militia leader who led a raid out of Ukraine into Russia has claimed he aimed to expose the country’s weak defences and inspire more compatriots to rise up against Vladimir Putin. Denis Nikitin, a notorious extremist who heads the Russian Volunteer Corps, told the Financial Times that his Ukraine-based fighters had proved
Germany and Italy have blown apart an EU plan to ban internal combustion engines by 2035, as the European car industry’s heartlands mount a fightback against ambitious carbon goals. The two countries, the homes of Volkswagen, Fiat and Ferrari, are demanding exemptions for cars that run on synthetic fuels, potentially cushioning the blow for established
It is hardly a coup de grâce to the City of London. But SoftBank’s rejection of a London listing for Arm is a serious blow. More than one UK prime minister lobbied for the Cambridge-based chip designer to return to the UK stock market. The postmortem on this failure of diplomacy will be messy. Arm
The writer is an FT contributing editor and former chief economist at the Bank of England Even economists are capable of love. And I love inflation targets, having been involved in their design and implementation in the UK, and across a number of other countries, for a period of more than 30 years. Yet recent events have
The writer is director of Chatham House, a think-tank I was standing with a group of American officials and political analysts on Monday when the news came through that Rishi Sunak had struck a deal with the EU. The pictures of the prime minister standing with Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, both beaming,
Germany has asked Switzerland to sell some of its decommissioned Leopard 2 tanks as it struggles to cobble together two battalions of the fighting vehicles to send to Ukraine. Berlin has requested that its neighbour sell some of its 96 mothballed Leopard 2 tanks to the German arms producer Rheinmetall. That could allow European countries
Ukraine is set to receive vital artillery ammunition within weeks after Brussels proposed reimbursing countries that provided shells from their stockpiles, according to EU officials. All EU countries except Denmark have joined a project that paves the way for common procurement of replacement supplies, an official said. “I think this will go fast, very fast.
European stocks rose on Friday as investors took an optimistic view of a week of data releases that showed economies in Europe and the US were more robust than expected. The region-wide Stoxx 600 and France’s Cac 40 climbed 0.5 per cent, and Germany’s Dax gained 0.7 per cent. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3
Maintaining unity among western allies over Russia’s war against Ukraine is getting harder amid growing concern over signs of appeasement in some countries, Estonia’s prime minister has warned. Kaja Kallas, one of the most high-profile leaders from the Nato states that border Russia, said in an interview that “we definitely have to worry about” appeasement.
More UK companies are drawing up plans to shift their stock market listings to the US, bankers say, in a growing exodus that threatens to undermine London’s effort to reinvent itself as a vibrant hub for global equities. CRH, the world’s biggest building materials company, on Thursday became the latest business to seek an exit
Job cuts are very much on corporate minds. A first round of swingeing culls hit the technology sector in November. US companies including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Amazon followed by laying off nearly 103,000 people in January, the highest monthly total since the height of the pandemic. Now the misery is spreading, as executives hunker
Rishi Sunak is refusing to rush Britain back into the EU’s €95.5bn Horizon science programme despite his recent breakthrough in relations with Brussels, raising the prospect of a tough negotiation on rejoining the scheme. Senior colleagues said the UK prime minister was “sceptical” about the value of the research programme — the world’s biggest —
James has lived in Dubai for 30 years and has never seen the local property market so frenetic. On a clear day, from his office in Boulevard Plaza, a stone’s throw from the Burj Khalifa, he can see the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made archipelago in the shape of a palm tree lined with luxury villas.
Kate Forbes, previously tipped to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National party, recently admitted that she would have voted against same-sex marriage had she been a member of the Scottish parliament in 2014. A public furore ensued. Forbes is a devoted member of the Free Church of Scotland. Stephen Evans, chief executive
This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign Money: it’s emotional. If I had to sum up the main lesson I have learned after many years writing about personal finance, this would be it. I always try to break down the barriers that prevent readers from getting to grips
An avalanche of hot inflation data over the past month has lifted US borrowing costs to the highest point in a decade and a half, intensifying debate over how much further interest rates must rise to rein in soaring consumer prices. The yield on the two-year Treasury note hit 4.94 per cent on Thursday, a
The British government’s drive to raise private finance for the new Sizewell C nuclear plant so construction can start may not conclude until the end of next year, more than a decade after the project was launched. Ministers gave the go-ahead last year for what would be the next project in Britain’s new nuclear programme,