Bank of England Live: Interest rates held as hawks warn of ‘highly uncertain’ energy prices April 30, 2026 Welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has today decided to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent in a hawkish display. In last month’s decision, the Bank held rates in a unanimous decision. Afterwards, short-term gilt yields, which reflect government borrowing costs, sharply rose as traders priced [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop as oil holds firm over $110; UK growth slashed April 29, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Oil prices are holding firm tipping over the $110 mark, bringing the cost of a barrel closer to the highs of $118 it peaked at earlier in the Iran war. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil – advanced another one per cent on [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks dip as oil edges higher; BP posts profit boom April 28, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Oil returned to a three-week high comfortably over the $105 mark on Monday and those gains look set to continue today. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – edged over $110 on Tuesday morning as it once again appeared peace talks in [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks dip as oil prices surge to three-week high April 27, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. There’s set to be little relief in markets this morning as investors return from the weekend to oil hitting a three-week high. The price of Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – rose two per cent to over $107 on Monday morning. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop as Trump in ‘no rush’ to end Iran war; Retail sales jump on fuel rush April 24, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Donald Trump has slapped another extension on ceasefires in the Middle East following Wednesday’s intervention, where a previous deadline was set to expire. Just days ago, Trump said he was extending the ceasefire indefinitely as the deadline for strikes on Iranian power plants drew nearer. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks slump as oil rises; Reeves tax hikes trigger borrowing boost April 23, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. An extended ceasefire may have been announced in the Middle East, but its left markets with major appetite for further peace before investor sentiment recovers. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – was trading back over the $100 mark on Thursday morning. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jitter as inflation surges; Trump extends ceasefire April 22, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Inflation has surged this morning follow the outbreak of war in Iran. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown the consumer price index rose by 3.3 per cent in the 12 months to March 2026. That’s up from three per cent [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks flat as Trump’s deadline looms; Job vacancies shrink; Primark gets spin-off April 21, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. New unemployment figures this morning have showed an unexpected twist where the joblessness rate slipped under the five per cent mark. But this was accompanied by a blow to the market with the number of vacancies fell by an estimate of 29,000 in the three [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks slump on renewed Iran threats; UK to be ‘pushed to brink’ of recession April 20, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Markets are returning from the weekend to a fresh round of volatility. The mood ended last week on a high following the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz but that sentiment was quickly squashed over the weekend as tensions renewed. Shipping in the Strait of [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jittery as Starmer makes play to reopen Strait of Hormuz April 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. The UK and France are set to co-chair a meeting with allies later today in a bid to strum up ways to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The vital waterway, which sits off Iran’s coast, sees around a fifth of the world’s oil supply flow [...]