Today In The Markets

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Scores of multinationals have heeded Riyadh’s ultimatum to establish regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia or face losing out on lucrative government contracts, but leading banks have been conspicuous by their absence. PepsiCo, Boeing, PwC and

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Staff in EY’s UK deals business have hit out at the company’s management for the way recent job cuts were handled, saying “trust is broken” and that employees feel “deflated” as sales in the department

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK’s Budget, presented last Wednesday by chancellor Jeremy Hunt, followed the usual well-rehearsed choreography. The government sends its policy plans to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, which forecasts how the resulting public finances

Lobbying firms are paying a premium for political operatives with Labour expertise and contacts ahead of the UK general election, as public affairs executives say they are seeing a surfeit of Conservative staffers looking to “bail out” of government. Several executives at some of the largest lobbying outfits in London said they had been trying

Ibrahim al-Kharabishy, a Palestinian lawyer in war-ravaged northern Gaza, considered himself fortunate when he was able to bake for his hungry family with pigeon feed. With shops largely empty and hardly any aid reaching the area, the ground feed — a mix of wheat, barley and corn — at least produced acceptable bread for his

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Officials from some of China’s most indebted provinces and cities have met leading state bankers in Beijing in recent days as they step up efforts to renegotiate debt payments on billions of dollars in liabilities

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Joe Biden has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “hurting Israel” through his administration’s treatment of Palestinians, but added the US would not set a “red line” limiting his actions against Hamas. The US

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US Department of Justice is investigating the mid-air door panel blowout that terrified passengers of an Alaska Airlines flight two months ago. The airline said that “In an event like this, it’s normal for

The US has widened its productivity lead over Europe, sparking fears in the EU that it faces a “competitiveness crisis” as policymakers call for greater public and private investment. New data released on Friday showed eurozone productivity fell 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, while in the US it rose

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Victor Jacobsson, the reclusive co-founder at the heart of Klarna’s boardroom conflict, has bought up a stake in the company via special purpose vehicles to become one of its largest shareholders ahead of an expected

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Retail & Consumer industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Stuart Devine thought his chain of fish and chip restaurants in Aberdeen had survived the worst when the UK government lifted Covid-19 lockdowns for good in spring 2021 and customers returned to enjoy

In most countries, the cancellation of a press conference would barely warrant a murmur. But the sudden announcement this week that China’s premier would no longer hold a customary media briefing at the annual gathering of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament has captivated political watchers of the week-long session, which ends on Monday. The press conference

As stock markets in the US surge, many increasingly cautious local private investors are turning to options and derivatives to protect against changing sentiment. There has been an explosion in funds in the US that use options in one form or another to act as a hedge, be that through so-called covered call writing, or

A mysterious Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Aden faces intensifying scrutiny among maritime experts concerned that the ship is helping Houthi rebels target commercial sea traffic. The Behshad, which outwardly looks like a standard dry bulk carrier, moved to the Gulf of Aden in January after years in the Red Sea, just as attacks

Wu Qing, the new head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, had been in the job for less than a month when he took to the stage for a high-profile press conference in Beijing on Wednesday. By the end of his first answer, the “broker butcher” — as he came to be known during a

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer, an FT contributing editor, is chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts and former chief economist at the Bank of England Serious times call for serious measures. This week, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Hands resting lightly on the lectern, Sir Paul Marshall laid in to the three enemies of the free market, what he called the “mutant siblings” of capitalism: the “cronies” colluding at Davos, monopolies and “woke”

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sam Altman will return to the board of OpenAI after a review into the events that lead to his dramatic ousting from the ChatGPT maker found no evidence that he should have been sacked. Altman

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Pentagon has said it would take up to 60 days and “over 1,000 forces” to build a floating pier and causeway off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.