Today In The Markets

With just weeks to go before the UK government rolls out the first stage of its flagship childcare expansion package, Catrin Blackwell has been told she will not be able to take advantage of the free hours it offers. The nursery used by the full-time nurse for her two-year-old twin boys has said it is

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to cut national insurance rates as he puts personal tax reductions at the heart of his Budget on Wednesday. Government insiders confirmed that Conservative whips had been told to

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Singapore’s Temasek Holdings is holding talks about investing in OpenAI, a deal that would mark the first time a state-backed group has funded the ChatGPT maker. Senior executives at Temasek, one of the world’s biggest

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. China’s plans to target economic growth of about 5 per cent this year should prompt some scepticism. Uncertainty from a property sector crisis and weak consumer spending make it difficult to be optimistic. But one

When Yemen’s Houthis attacked a ship carrying 21,000 tonnes of fertiliser from Saudi Arabia to Bulgaria last month, they had a simple justification: they said the Rubymar was a “British ship”. But the Rubymar, which sank on Saturday, flew the flag of Belize, was partly managed by a Beirut-based ship management company, was on a

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Monzo has secured a fresh round of funding that has boosted its valuation to $5bn, as the London-based fintech prepares a second attempt to break into the US market. The digital bank on Tuesday confirmed

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has just released a report criticising the government for failing to track whether it is doing a good job in its borrowing strategy. You can read mainFT’s write-up here.

Hawkish policymakers at the European Central Bank have been emboldened to resist calls for an imminent cut to interest rates at their meeting this week after inflation proved stickier than expected in February. Until a few months ago, investors were betting the ECB would cut borrowing costs as early as this month, encouraged by how

Last November, the $1.6tn Norwegian sovereign wealth fund asked the government for the umpteenth time if it could be allowed to invest in private equity. That’s a good excuse to explore one of the financial world’s most controversial issues. After all, this is potentially a big deal, given the size of Norges Bank Investment Management

Christian Kroll is frustrated. The founder of Berlin-based search engine start-up Ecosia says he has been feeling stressed these past few months about how his company’s larger rival Google will abide by new EU rules aimed at opening up competition. In order to comply with the Digital Markets Act, Google must present its users with

Academics at Imperial College London have worked with scientists at Chinese institutions linked to Beijing’s armed forces and defence sector on research with potential military applications. Since the beginning of 2023, academics at the world-leading British university have been named as co-authors on at least five studies with figures from Chinese organisations at the heart

Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s chancellor, spends a lot of time telling colleagues he wants to do “the right thing” in this week’s Budget. Many Conservative MPs have a simpler priority: they want the Budget to help save their seats. “Hunt’s approach is to play it safe, but facing an election we need someone bold and visionary,”

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Microsoft has accused The New York Times of “doomsday futurology” for predicting that ChatGPT could ruin the news business, as it seeks to dismiss a lawsuit that claims the artificial intelligence bot’s creator OpenAI engaged

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China will target economic growth of around 5 per cent this year, a rate described as “ambitious” by analysts, as the world’s second-largest economy battles challenges ranging from a property slowdown to weak investor confidence.

Shares in Tesla dropped more than 7 per cent on Monday after shipments from the electric-car maker’s China factory hit a 14-month low in February, amid disruption from the lunar new year and a price war. Tesla delivered 60,365 cars from its plant in Shanghai last month, the lowest since December 2022, preliminary figures from

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy “It’s a trade rather than an investment.” This is how a portfolio manager framed their purchase of Chinese equities on

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK Treasury must do more to ensure government debt is issued at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers ahead of a record year for gilt sales, a cross-party group of MPs has warned. The

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A UN report has found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence against Israelis during its October 7 attacks. Pramila Patten, the UN’s special envoy on sexual violence, said in a

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Nikki Haley has lashed out at a “completely unhinged” Donald Trump and blamed him for chaos at the US’s southern border, saying he had deliberately scuttled bipartisan efforts in Congress to crack down on migration.