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FTSE 100 Live: Babcock boss exits; Retail sales fall in golden quarter

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Whitfield will replace outgoing chair Andy Higginson.
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Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog.

Today is the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos and what a ride it has been for capital markets.

The FTSE 100 started Monday’s trading session at a cool 10,235.31 before shedding some points as Trump turned up pressure on his tariff threat on Nato peers.

While markets were bracing for disruption, it hadn’t spiralled into all-out chaos quite yet as many investors though TACOs could be on the menu.

Indeed the phrase ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ (TACO) – a phrase coined in the aftermath of the US’ ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in 2025 – returned to the markets as investors were betting on a row back.

But come Tuesday, that looked less likely after the EU and Trump officials got caught in a heated war of words.

The EU pledged an “unflinching” response to Trump’s tariffs and the President said he would “100 per cent” slap the new levies on European nations if an agreement wasn’t made for Greenland.

The FTSE 100 sank to lows of 10,055.57 and failed to make any meaningful gains until Trump pledged he wouldn’t take Greenland by force – even then investors were still in a shaken mood.

Though all that changed with one Truth Social post where Trump announced the “framework” of a deal had been made and as a result the tariffs on Nato would be dropped.

London’s blue-chip index roared back to life on Thursday morning on the news before giving up some gains in later trading.

With tariffs off the table and as we await updates on Trump’s Greenland deal is it back to business as usual in the City – or will Trump have another geopolitical wild card up his sleeve?

We’ll be bringing you the top news and analysis of the morning.

In the meantime, here’s a few of our top stories from yesterday: