- FTSE 100 rises 6 points to 8,711
- Haleon buys back £170m as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) exits
- M&G moves to progressive dividend
4.10pm: Battling higher
Marching towards the midweek close, London’s blue-chip index looks like it will notch a fifth positive close in a row.
The Footsie is currently up 5.6 points at just under 8,711, battling back from losses earlier, while the FTSE 250 is up 31 points at 20,129.
Softcat (LON:SCTS) is the top FTSE 350 riser after its interim results that beat expectations across the board.
Games Workshop (LON:GAW) is the top blue-chip, while Compass and Croda (LON:CRDA) lead the fallers.
Essentra, on the mid-cap index, is the biggest faller on the 350, down 5.9% to what looks like close to all-time lows.
This is despite results that Jefferies and Peel Hunt (LON:PEEL) analysts said were in line with expectations.
"The group remains an early-cycle play on EU/US PMI and IP recovery, and there is a healthy M&A pipeline," said Jefferies, reiterating a ’buy’ rating.
3.32pm: FTSE breaks into the green
The FTSE 100 has turned positive with an hour to go before the close.
Tabletop gaming group Games Workshop and aerospace company Melrose (LON:MRON) are topping the leaderboard, but oil companies Shell (LON:SHEL) and BP (LON:BP) are doing some heavy lifting, up 1.8% and 0.9%.
Three-quarters of the top 20 largest stocks in the index are in green now.
Bigges faller is caterer Compass Group PLC (LSE:LON:CPG), down 3.9% after a downgrade to ‘underperform’ from ‘outperform’ by BNP Paribas (EPA:BNPP) Exane.
Chemicals company Croda, commodities group Glencore (LON:GLEN) and GSK (LON:GSK) are other fallers down more than 1.5%.
3.06pm: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google breached EU digital rules
Apple and Google have been told by the European Union that they have both failed to operate with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
The pair are the first to be told by the EU’s executive arm how they must comply with the new rules, which took effect last year and come with hefty potential fines, including up to 10% of global turnover.
Apple was told by the European Commission to open up the operating system of its iPhones and other devices to allow access to competing software.
"As a result, connected devices of all brands will work better on iPhones. Device manufacturers will have new opportunities to bring innovative products to the market, improving the user experience for consumers based in Europe."
Separately, the EC said it has taken a "preliminary view" that Google search results are more favourable to parent company Alphabet’s own services, such as shopping, hotel booking, transport, or financial and sports results, compared to rival ones, breaching the requirement to treat third-party services in a “transparent, fair and non-discriminatory” way.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will now be able to defend itself but if the preliminary views are ultimately confirmed, a "non-compliance" decision could result in a hefty fine.
2.31pm: Fed to set the tone
US stocks are powering higher, with the S&P and Dow both up over 0.6% and the Nasdaq up 0.9%.
But the tone for the next few days will be set by the Fed later, says market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at City Index, with markets mixed so far on the day leading up to the US central bank’s decision.
Earlier the Bank of Japan held rates steady, turning the spotlight onto the Fed, which will announce its decision at 2pm ET (6pm GMT).
The Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to hold rates steady but its policy statement, updated economic forecasts and ’dot plot’ rate projections, along with Jerome Powell’s press conference all offer chances for the market to read the runes about future decisions.
"While major policy shifts from the Fed are seen as highly unlikely, any dovish surprise could well jolt the dollar," says Razaqzada.
Traders will "pore over every line" of what is said today, with particular attention paid to Powell’s remarks on the economic and inflation outlook, especially in light of President Trump’s tariff manoeuvres.
"Should the Fed chief suggest rate cuts might come sooner than previously expected, the dollar could soften," the analyst adds.
Earlier the US dollar index bounced slightly off a five-month low.
2.11pm: Ripple in the crypto markets
In cryptocurrencies, XRP is standing out this afternoon, up 11% to a two-week high after a tweet from the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse.
He said the US financial regulator "will drop its appeal" over a long-running case against Ripple Labs.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a notice of appeal against the creator of the Ripple XRP cryptocurrency last October.
Ripple Labs was ordered to pay $125 million last August for securities law violations tied to the launch of the XRP crypto token in 2012, which was a mere slap on the wrist compared to the $2 billion in fines the SEC was seeking.
This is it – the moment we’ve been waiting for. The SEC will drop its appeal – a resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it.The future is bright. Let’s build. pic.twitter.com/7WsD0C92Cm
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 19, 2025
1.45pm: Wall Street starts higher
Wall Street has woken up in a moderately positive mood, with the S&P 500 index up 0.2%, trailing gains of 0.3$ for the Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite.
All of the Nasdaq’s tech titans are in the red, led by a 3.8% rise for Tesla and 2.1% for Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).
1.10pm: Record UK retail investor demand for gilts
There was another surge in demand for gilts from small private investors in the past month, according to Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV), with demand from retail investors reportedly big enough to impact prices.
The UK’s largest investment platform reported that net buys of UK government bonds was 63% higher in February compared to in January, which was already a four-year record high.
HL clients holding UK government bonds are up 32% in number compared to this time a year ago.
Hal Cook, senior investment analyst at the platform, says that, "astonishingly", analysis of bond funds showed it was retail investor demand for gilts has been big enough to impact prices recently, noting that some fund managers had noted the higher demand for low coupon gilts, particularly in early February, was distorting market pricing.
12.15pm: Green light for Wall Street open ahead of Fed decision
US stocks are being tipped to open higher today.
S&P 500 futures are up 0.2% and Dow Jones futures are just above flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures are up 0.3%.
Europe continues to be mixed, with the FTSE’s 0.2% loss joined with a 0.4% decline for the DAX, while other benchmarks are positive.
11.27am: Gold likely to retain support, says UBS
Some thoughts on gold prices from UBS.
After the price of the yellow metal reached another new all-time high yesterday of US$3,039 per ounce (and this morning topped $3,045).
After this latest rally, gold has gained over 18.7% year-to-date, building on its 27% advance in 2024.
"With the US$3,000/oz milestone reached, investors may be uncertain if gold’s appeal can extend further," says UBS chief investment officer Mark Haefele.
"But we see several reasons why gold looks likely to remain well-supported," the first being that geopolitical flashpoints "remain fraught", including tariff concerns, strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, Israel’s strikes on Gaza and Russia stopping short of agreeing to a full ceasefire.
He also cited market pricing of Fed rate cuts, with more cuts providing extra support for gold as pricing has moved from around two quarter-point rate cuts this year to a higher probability of three.
Gold inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have also accelerated in recent weeks, "fulfilling a key requirement we previously flagged to unlock higher gold prices".
The world’s largest gold ETF, SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD), reported its holdings at around 908 metric tons in February, which would be the highest level since February 2023, with gold holdings in European ETFs hitting a record 1,334 tons since the start of 2025, according to World Gold Council data, while US gold ETFs have increased more than 4% this year.
"While the market has drifted into technical overbought territory, we think the prevailing mood among investors remains cautious, which is likely to support the appetite for gold.
"Gold remains a key portfolio hedge against near-term uncertainty, but also against episodic bouts of risk aversion further out."
UBS also likes silver, which has lagged the gold rally.
11.01am: Top ’Cat
Softcat PLC shares have jumped 13% after the company upgraded its full-year profit guidance following a strong first half.
The IT infrastructure provider reported a 12.1% rise in gross profit to £220.2 million and a 10.4% increase in operating profit to £73.7 million for the six months to January 31.
Analyst Damindu Jayaweera at Peel Hunt says: "Softcat remains the best UK play on potential recovery in hardware spend over the next cycle, with no recovery expectation built in to FY25 guidance.
"Given the Windows refresh is taking place in October (free Windows 10 support is being discontinued), early movers would create further upside. The company mentioned both cyber security and AI adoption as structural tailwinds."
Martin O’Sullivan at Shore Capital notes that Softcat’s shares have tracked the FTSE All Share over the past three months, "balancing optimism about the company’s growth potential with caution over near-term performance amid the UK’s ongoing GDP headwinds".
10.35am: Central banks standing pat
Ahead of the US Federal Reserve decision later, there are other central bank decisions today.
The Bank of Japan left policy unchanged, as did Indonesia’s central bank.
Japan is a popular area of investment among global investors, with two Japan-focused investment trusts in the FTSE 250.
The BoJ kept its policy rate at 0.50% at Wednesday’s meeting, as expected.
Shigeto Nagai at Oxford Economics says: "Despite a marginally higher increase in pay than last year at the first round of the spring wage negotiations, our baseline view is for the BoJ to hike its policy rate only gradually due to concerns about the capacity of small firms to raise wages and the lacklustre rate of consumption.
"We still expect the next hike will take place at July’s policy meeting, but the BoJ might move in June if wage agreements at small firms exceed expectations.
"Moreover, risks to the global outlook posed by the shift in US policy and the potential for political uncertainty around the upper house election in July are further motivations for a June hike."
10.14am: Lethargy and corrections
"A general level of lethargy" has descended on London and European markets, says Richard Hunter at Interactive Investors, "with investors pondering when the next trauma may come".
For the most part, there has been a "broad markdown of well-established names with some investors potentially taking profits on some of the best performing shares of late, such as Barclays (LON:BARC) and International Consolidated Airlines, whose shares have risen by 71% and 80% respectively over the last year".
Despite the dip, he notes that the FTSE 100 remains ahead by 6% so far this year, while the FTSE 250 is 2.7% lower.
Looking at the US last night he says the S&P 500 moved towards correction territory for the second time in a week, while the Nasdaq remains "firmly in correction mode".
The Mag-7 tech giants are down 16.2% so far this year, with the S&P 500 down 4.5%, though the equal weight S&P 500 is down just 1% in the year to date.
"So outside of the Mag-7 it’s just a small sell-off so far," says Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn).
"So when we think about the US market falls this year I would say sentiment changes towards the Mag-7 are a bigger impact domestically than the trade headlines even if both matter."
9.40am: European stocks mixed
Across Europe stocks are mixed, with a lack of big news to drive the overall narrative, with yesterday’s US-Russia call a damp squib and Germany’s spending increase already priced into markets.
The FTSE 100 and Italy’s FTSE MIB are down 0.1% and Germany’s DAX is 0.2% lower, while France’s CAC and Spain’s IBEX are both up 0.4%.
Summing things up, the pan-continental Euro Stoxx 600 is just above flat.
Softcat PLC (LSE:SCT) is top riser on the Stoxx, up 10% as the UK IT firm reported a "beat-across-the-board" set of interim results this morning.
Analysts at Stifel notes that operating profit was 2% ahead of expectations, while revenues were 6% ahead driven by hardware showing "some early signs of momentum in end-user devices".
9.21am: Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) calls for shareholders to reject activist call
Rio Tinto Ltd (LSE:RIO, ASX:RIO) has issued a statement calling for why it thinks shareholders to vote against a resolution proposed by activist Palliser Capital for the company to give up its London listing.
The activist investor last year called for a committee of independent directors and an external shareholder representative to assess whether unification into an Australian-domiciled holding company would be in the best interests of shareholders.
"A unification of the DLC [dual listed company structure] would be value destructive for the group and its shareholders. Assertions about US$50 billion of value erosion due to the group’s DLC are both unfounded and misleading," the board stated, adding that it has already carried out a review.
8.42am: Tesla ’needs a new CEO’
An early investor in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has called for Elon Musk to step down as CEO unless he relinquishes his new government role.
Ross Gerber argued that Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration, particularly leading the so-called ’Department of Government Efficiency’, has made him too "divisive" and distracted from Tesla’s operations.
"I think Tesla needs a new CEO and I decided today I was going to start saying it and so this is the first show that I’m saying it on," he told Sky News.
Gerber, who was one of the electric vehicle maker’s earliest investors but has since sold down his stake, described the company as being in "crisis", with its market value having dropped by over 44% from record highs seen late last year.
8.26am: Filtronic (LON:FTC) strengthens order visibility with SpaceX
Filtronic PLC (LSE:FTC) has strengthened its strategic partnership with SpaceX to give a stronger guarantee of the flow of future orders for the E-band amplifiers that it supplies for the Starlink satellite programme.
The Country Durham business has issued 10.95 million warrants to SpaceX at an exercise price of 92.8p, enabling the US company to subscribe for a stake of up to 5%. Certain amounts of warrants are expected to vest based on the receipt of irrevocable purchase orders.
CEO Nat Edington said it gives the company "greater visibility and confidence that we are trading marginally ahead of market expectations for our financial year ending 31 May 2026".
House broker Cavendish said as a result of the additional order visibility, it is raising revenue forecast 7% to £46 million but keeping earnings unchanged.
8.15am: FTSE falls out of bed
The FTSE 100 has stumbled out of bed, falling over 37 points to just under 8,668, a drop of 0.4%.
Top faller is Compass Group, down 5.8% for no reason I can fathom yet.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) is down another 1.75%, down 14% since Asda said on Friday that it was stepping things up.
GSK, Schroders (LON:SDR) and IAG (LON:ICAG) are among the other fallers.
7.59am: M&G lifts dividend 2% and moves to progressive policy
M&G PLC said it is moving to a progressive dividend policy, starting with a 2% increase to this year’s total dividend per share, as it continues its transformation under CEO Andrea Rossi.
On a statutory basis, the FTSE 100 group swung to a loss after tax of £347 million from a £309 million profit last time, while also reporting a 5% rise in underlying operating profits to £837 million, as profits from its asset management business rose 19% to offset a flat contribution from the life business.
Rossi said "meaningful progress" had been made on business strategy: reducing debt, simplifying the operating model, growing asset management profits and seeing "positive momentum" in life with £0.9 billion of bulk purchase annuity deals completed.
7.42am: Prudential (LON:PRU) results
Prudential PLC results will be out today, I just checked.
But not til 10pm UK time, the small print reveals.
7.33am: Pfizer sells stake in Haleon to zero
Haleon PLC (LSE:LON:HLN, NYSE:HLN) has agreed to buy £170 million of its shares back from former parent company Pfizer, which is also selling the rest of its stake in the company to institutional investors.
The FTSE 100-listed maker of toothpaste and vitamins paid 385p per share for the off-market purchase, compared to its 391p last closing price.
Haleon said the purchase will represent a portion of the £500 million it allocated to share buybacks this year in its announcement last month.
Pfizer will now have fully sold down its stake in Haleon, which was at 32% at the time it was spun out in July 2022.
7.16am: Flat start for FTSE 100 called
The FTSE 100 could be caught in a state of indecision at the open on Wednesday after Wall Street stocks fell overnight, with gold glittering at new heights this morning.
On the futures market, the London benchmark was flat ahead of the open, having risen by almost 25 points to close at 8,705.2 yesterday.
Gold has just hit a new high just above $3,045 in the past couple of hours, up over $120 in the past week.
Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin failed to agree on a full ceasefire, though Russia agreed to some stop bombing energy infrastructure for 30 days. However, air attacks between the two sides continued overnight.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang introduced its new AI chip, Vera Rubin, which is more than twice as fast as its predecessor Blackwell, but it failed to lift the shares, which fell over 3.4% on the day.
The S&P 500 reversed gains from the past two sessions and fell 1.1%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.7% and the Dow Jones eased 0.6%. Facebook (NASDAQ:META) became the last of the ’Magnificent 7’ stocks to give back all of its year-to-date gains, falling 3.7% on the day.
5am: What to watch on Wednesday
The Federal Reserve will announce their interest rate decision, with markets expecting a zero chance of a rate change meaning spotlight will be fully on the US central bank’s latest economic data projections and governor Jerome Powell’s press conference.
The Fed’s new ’dot plot’, showing the FOMC members’ latest projections for interest rates in the coming meetings, will be released, following the December chart showing a mild loosening of monetary policy in the coming years and a median interest rates this year of 3.9%.
Before that announcement, results from London-listed companies will include Prudential and M&G.
Prudential last month gave a lift to its shares with a proposed exit from an Indian JV, with its last results in November having quietened some of the doubts about the business.
Overseas earnings include Temu owner PDD Holdings, which reports on the important fourth quarter after its previous earnings showed sales growth slowing.
Announcements due on 19 March:
Finals: Advanced Medical (TASE:BLWV) Solutions Group PLC, Essentra PLC (LON:ESNT), FDM Group (LON:FDM) PLC, Hutchmed (China) Ltd, Judges Scientific PLC, M&G PLC, Prudential PLC
US and international earnings: PDD Holdings, General Mills (NYSE:GIS), Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings, Sportradar Group
AGMs: LPA Group PLC, Safestore Holdings PLC
Economic news: Federal Reserve Decision (US), FOMC Economic Projections (US)