Closing post
Our main story:
Asos is investigating after users of its mobile app received a notification claiming hackers had “fully compromised” the online fashion retailer’s data.
The value of Asos’s shares on the London Stock Exchange dived more than 14% after thousands of customers received a notification titled “Asos hacked” with a link that sent them to the Telegram messaging service.
The website and app appeared to be continuing to operate on Tuesday morning and it is understood that Asos is still investigating whether any hack has taken place.
The Telegram channel operated by the purported hackers, who have named themselves the “Xuanye group”, carried the message “Regarding Asos, payment information is not affected” without giving further details.
The National Cyber Security Centre, part of the government’s GCHQ intelligence agency, is offering its assistance to Asos.
The message sent out to customers said: “Dear Asos DPO [data protection officer] and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance.”
Stock markets around the world are rising, with US indices hitting fresh all-time highs (the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq) fuelled by the AI trade, while oil prices have retreated and government bond yields have also pulled back.
Brent crude has fallen almost 2% to $98.34, after hitting a session low of $97.06 a barrel.
Thank you for reading – we’ll be back tomorrow. Take care – JK
Hedge funds can help financial markets become more liquid and efficient, but tend to amplify crises, according to new analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Publishing a chapter of its twice-yearly Global Financial Stability Report ahead of its annual meeting next week, the IMF said hedge funds had become “increasingly important participants in financial markets,” with their gross assets trebling over the past decade to $13trn.
It warned that, “the growing market footprint of hedge funds can support market liquidity and efficiency in normal times but may amplify price dislocations and liquidity strains during periods of stress.”
In particular, it highlighted high levels of leverage, fragile investor funding, and “crowded trades,” with many funds making the same bet, causing big swings in markets if they are rapidly unwound.
The IMF calls for closer supervision of hedge funds by regulators, including “risk based leverage limits” to prevent them becoming too overstretched.
Emotions run high at FCA's annual meeting, with questions over how it handled Epstein whistleblower
The Financial Conduct Authority’s annual public meeting (APM) has been dominated by questions and concerns over how it handled a Jeffrey Epstein whistleblower who took his own life last week.
The watchdog’s bosses gathered in Edinburgh on Tuesday for the meeting, which is the one time a year the FCA publicly runs a hours-long question and answer session about its work.
That included news that they would be launching an investigation into the FCA’s handling of a case surrounding British banker Simon Andriesz, who took his own life last month after highlighting alleged ties between late sex offender Epstein and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
Andriesz had accused the FCA of failing to hold his former employer to account for alleged wrongdoing, and had been wrongly told by the regulator that he did not qualify for whistleblower protection.
Emotions ran high, at the APM where many attendees accused the FCA of failing whistleblowers who had put their livelihoods and mental health on the line to speak out.
Some also accused the FCA of setting up an investigation where it would be marking its own homework, having assigned a new board member - rather than an external party - to run the investigation.
A member of the Transparency Task Force, of which Andriesz was a member, also called for chairman Ashley Adler’s resignation over the matter, saying:
It is clear to me…that you are incapable of protecting the reputational integrity of the FCA through allowing a conflicted party and employee to now, after a death, be in charge of a review.
And on that basis, sir, I call for you to resign, because this organization, the reputational integrity of the FCA, is determined by how well Mr. Alder manages this organization’s reputation. And if he cannot do that, and he is proven time and time again that he cannot do that, you, sir, must step aside.
Adler did not acknowledge the call for his resignation, and instead insisted that the independent non-executive board members took their job very seriously. He said that Lea Patterson, who had recently joined the board, would aim to complete her review “at pace” and publish her findings by the end of the year.
Wall Street stocks hit fresh record highs on AI rally
US indices have hit fresh record highs, as buzz around the AI trade and hopes of strong company profits lifted technology stocks.
The benchmark S&P 500 index touched an all-time high of 7,818.57 points, up 0.6% and above the previous intraday record of 7,816.7 points on 13 August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which closed at a record high on Monday, has also risen to a fresh peak, gaining 0.6% to 27,635.
The Dow Jones climbed 0.6% to 51,572, up 306 points.
Merz and Macron initiate 'historic U-turn' on China, Handelsblatt says
Germany’s Friedrich Merz has initiated an “historic U-turn” by siding with Emmanuel Macron and giving EU leaders effective permission to approve a “kill switch” to stop China further harming its economy, the country’s leading financial newspaper has said.
Columnist Martin Greive in Handelsblatt says the new position would have been unthinkable three years ago yet has got “surprisingly little recognition” at home. He wrote today:
The German government initiated nothing less than an economic turning point on Monday. The coalition is realigning its China policy, putting an end to years of naiveté towards Beijing that cost German industry 15,000 industrial jobs every month.
Merz and Macron submitted proposals on Monday for new rapid-action measures to strike back against countries that harm it, including powers to cut off access to the EU single market if China or others that destablise trade relations.
The letter comes 10 days before EU leaders meet in Brussels to discuss safeguards to curb the now £1bn a day surplus in trade with China, reflected in soaring sales of everything from hybrid car sales to chemicals and components in manufacturing made in China.
They said “systemic market-distorting practices” jeopardise the bloc’s economy and industrial base, requiring urgent action.
Their position paper is a remarkable U-turn for Germany given years of hostility to anything that would upset China, or the German car industry’s investments in China.
Only two years ago the then German chancellor Olaf Scholz voted against tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, siding with the German car industry.
But the mood in Germany has changed with to up 100,000 job losses predicted in Volkswagen and threats of cannibalisation to native industries.
On Friday the confederation of business industries, BDI, called for “derisking” while Eurometal, the EU-wide confederation of industries supplying metal components, has warned of widespread factory closures unless China is tackled.
Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann says above-target inflation 'embedded' in UK
Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann, who voted to raise interest rates in July and September, said that inflation has become embedded in the UK economy.
Inflation running above the Bank of England’s 2% target risks getting further entrenched in wage negotiations early next year, she said today.
Last week, she said the Bank had erred in March, just after the start of the Iran war, by letting investors think it was happy to take a wait-and-see approach to raising rates.
Mann, who joined the monetary policy committee (MPC) in 2021, said at a conference hosted by economic advisors TS Lombard:
We’ve had inflation well above target for the entire time that I’ve been in my position.... And so inflation has become embedded.
Unlike the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England has kept interest rates unchanged since the outbreak of the Iran war. Traders now see an 80% chance of a rate hike at its November meeting, and a total of 100 basis points of rate rises by the end of next year. The Bank’s base rate is at 3.75%.
Mann expressed concern that inflation looks set to hit 4% around the turn of the year, when many employers negotiate annual pay increases.
Other MPC members have said they will look for early signs of big wage increases, but have highlighted a weaker job market than when inflation last soared because of Russia’s Ukraine war in 2022.
The central bank’s governor Andrew Bailey is among a handful of policymakers speaking on Thursday.
IMF urges governments to offer targeted support for poorest households hit by energy price shock
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged governments to respond to the latest energy price shock with targeted support for the poorest households, instead of by subsidising bills.
In a new blogpost, published ahead of the IMF’s annual meetings next week, the Washington-based lender says energy price spikes can have long-lasting effects, and hit low-income households hardest.
By analysing the impact of the last energy crisis, in 2022-24, the IMF shows that, “for every euro spent suppressing electricity, natural gas, and gasoline prices, less than 20 cents reached the poorest fifth of households”.
It also points out that by making energy cheaper for everyone, across-the-board subsidies, “weaken incentives to conserve scarce resources”.
The IMF’s analysis comes as the UK chancellor, John Healey, weighs up how much support to offer households in the UK ahead of an expected sharp rise in utility bills next January.
Channel 4 to appoint David Brindley as new programming director
Channel 4 is set to appoint David Brindley, the boss of the producer of shows including Destination X, as its new programming director and one of the most influential roles in British broadcasting.
Brindley, who will be responsible for the vast majority of the broadcaster’s £640m annual programming budget, is effectively taking over from long-serving chief content officer Ian Katz who is departing this month.
Following an extensive recruitment process Brindley, who runs ITV-backed production company Twofour, is understood to have won out over former BBC Three and Sky entertainment boss Stuart Murphy.
The appointment, which is expected to be announced imminently, marks the final shake-up of a new leadership team by new chief executive Priya Dogra.
Last month, Dogra, the former Sky executive who took over from Alex Mahon in March, unveiled the biggest round of layoffs in Channel 4’s 43-year history as the financially challenged broadcaster seeks to dramatically cut costs.
Brindley will take on the title of director of programmes, after Dogra decided to split some of Katz’s responsibilities between several executives.
While he will be responsible for the vast majority of unscripted and all scripted commissioning, Louisa Compton, director of news, digital and audience trust, will head up current affairs and digital commissioning.
Kiran Nataraja, director of content strategy, is the third member of Channel 4’s senior commissioning leadership all of whom will report to Dogra.
Brindley previously worked for Channel 4 where he notched up credits including Educating Yorkshire, one of the channel’s biggest hits, and joined Twofour as chief creative officer in 2020. He was appointed chief executive last year.
Channel 4 declined to comment.
Shares in the online fashion retailer Asos are down 13.3% now, after users of its mobile app received a notification claiming hackers had “fully compromised” the company’s data. The company is investigating whether there has been a hack.
Marty Bauer, ecommerce expert at the software company Omnisend, said:
Asos’s website never went down, but the commercial damage can start the moment customers lose trust in the messages coming through its own channels. People let a brand onto their phone because they trust it. Once that channel has been used to threaten them, they may start questioning genuine messages too.
Push notifications are one of the hardest-working channels retailers have. Across brands using Omnisend, push automations had a 22.9% conversion rate last year. If customers now switch notifications off or stop engaging with them, that could have a direct impact on repeat sales.
The first practical step is to pause any automated promotional sends. A discount arriving before an explanation of that notification risks making customers feel their concerns are being ignored.
With Black Friday approaching, Asos will want existing customers to feel comfortable buying again. If shoppers disengage from push notifications and email now, that is revenue the brand may find difficult to win back.
Here’s more reaction.
Tatyana Shishkova, lead security researcher at the anti-virus provider Kaspersky, said:
The ability of hackers to directly contact potential victims through push notifications in the Asos app highlights how disruptive cyber incidents can be when threat actors gain access to trusted communication channels. Beyond the immediate technical impact, incidents like this can quickly undermine customer trust, particularly when alarming messages appear to come from a legitimate organisation.
While attackers have reportedly claimed to have compromised a Snowflake environment, organisations should avoid drawing conclusions based solely on statements made by cybercriminals. Establishing what systems were accessed, what data may have been exposed, and how attackers gained entry requires a thorough forensic investigation.
Regardless of the attack path, the incident reinforces the importance of strong identity and access management across cloud environments. Recent investigations by Kaspersky have shown that cybercriminals increasingly rely on misconfigurations, exposed services and legitimate tools already present within an organisation’s environment rather than sophisticated malware. In some cases, attackers have even abused trusted business systems, including corporate printers, to deliver ransom demands directly to employees and amplify the psychological impact of an attack.
She added that customers whose data may have been compromised should remain alert to follow-on phishing and social engineering attempts. Cybercriminals often exploit the confusion surrounding high-profile incidents, using convincing messages that appear to come from trusted organisations.
Here’s our full story on Asos, and a bit of a potted history below.
Snowflake, which stores data for many major companies including Asos, has reportedly been the target of a number of data breaches in recent years, including an attack on Ticketmaster which saw customer details stolen.
London-headquartered Asos, which owns brands including Topshop and Miss Selfridge, has 17 million customers around the world, in more than 150 countries. It employs 2,800 people.
The UK is its group’s largest market, accounting for nearly half (49%) of revenues in its first half results.
The fast fashion retailer was founded in 2000 under the name As Seen on Screen, and became popular for its fashion and accessories sported by celebrities in films and on TV. It grew from a tiny startup into the UK’s largest online fashion and beauty retailer by 2014. Its chequered red-and-white skater dress, was worn by Michelle Obama, and it later saw explosive growth during Covid lockdowns.
However, more recently Asos has struggled against competition from Boohoo, Shein and others, and is in the middle of a major turnaround programme as it tries to reverse a drop in sales and return to profit.
Asos has turned to online stylists powered by artificial intelligence as it attempts to win back customers.
Late last year, the company said it was testing “Styled for You”, which uses AI trained on its database of 100,000 curated outfits to suggest items that could go together with those a shopper has already bought or has searched.
Updated
Marie Wilcox, vice president of market strategy at the automated cyber investigation platform Binalyze, said:
This notification was psychological warfare, designed to whip up panic. Attackers know that any panic piles on the pressure on Asos to think about paying up rather than taking time to develop a rational response.
This is a clear shift in how we see breaches: from learning after the fact, to thousands of users seeing the news pushed onto their phone home screens in real time.
The next few hours are crucial. Asos cannot let panicked pressure dictate its response. The priority must be investigation, and closing the gap that allowed this mass notification to go out. Activity like this will surely have huge noise around it that leaves a clear trail, so there should be plenty of evidence of what happened and how to fix it.
This is also further evidence of the pressure security teams are under. They are overloaded: 15% of security alerts have to be flat-out ignored, 37% of vulnerabilities go undiscovered, and the focus is so totally on alerts and response that teams cannot proactively hunt threats before they strike. In this environment something will inevitably break through.
Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, part of the cybersecurity software company Nord Security, said:
This is an unusually brazen and threatening message. The attackers aren’t simply claiming to have breached Asos - they’re publicly telling the company to engage with them or they will leak what they say they have obtained.
What makes it even more concerning is how that threat appears to have been delivered. A message apparently written for ASOS’s data protection and IT teams has instead been pushed directly to customers through the company’s own app notification system. That suggests someone has gained unauthorised access to at least part of Asos’s systems, although we don’t yet know how extensive that access is.
The attackers claim they have ‘fully compromised’ Asos Snowflake instance. Snowflake is a cloud data platform businesses use to store and analyse large quantities of information. If that claim proves genuine, the critical question will be what information was held there and whether any of it was accessed or downloaded. At this stage, however, customers shouldn’t assume their personal or payment information has been stolen - that hasn’t been established.
What customers should be particularly alert to now is what happens next, Briedis said.
High-profile cyber incidents create ideal conditions for phishing attacks. Criminals may exploit the publicity by sending emails and texts claiming to be from Asos, perhaps asking customers to reset a password, confirm payment details, check an order or claim a refund.
Don’t click links in unexpected messages, even if they look convincing. Go directly to the Asos app or website instead. Customers should also make sure their Asos password is unique and, if they’ve used the same password elsewhere, change it on those accounts too.
Until Asos completes its investigation, we won’t know exactly what has been accessed or how the attackers got in. But this incident shows how powerful access to a trusted communications channel can be. When an attacker can potentially speak to customers through a company’s own systems, it makes the threat considerably more convincing and potentially much more damaging.
Updated
Asos investigating after thousands of customers get notification saying retailer has been hacked
Asos is investigating after users of its phone app received a notification claiming hackers had “fully compromised” the online fashion retailer’s data.
The value of Asos’s shares on the London stock exchange dived almost 12%, after thousands of customers received a mobile app notification titled “Asos hacked” which sent them to a message on the Telegram messaging service.
However, the website and app appeared to be continuing to operate on Tuesday morning and it is understood that Asos is still investigating whether any hack has taken place.
The message was sent out to customers said “Dear ASOS DPO [data protection officer] and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance.”
Snowflake is a cloud platform used to store, process and analyse data collected by Simon AI including transactions and demographic information, such as clothing sizes and body measurements. It also enables push notifications to clients’ phones.
Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at Huntress, an online security firm, said:
Snowflake is a massive cloud database where retailers typically store sensitive customer information, a real worry if cyber criminals have indeed accessed it as they claim. The push notification suggests attackers have breached the systems controlling the ASOS mobile app also. This is clear public extortion.
Sending a ransom demand directly to consumer devices is an aggressive extortion tactic designed to force the business into a quick negotiation. I strongly advise shoppers to watch out for targeted phishing attempts while we wait for official confirmation of a data breach.
The potential hack comes after a string of British retailers including Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods suffered major hacking events last year. M&S and the Co-op experienced stock shortages and the former was forced to close its website for several weeks as it battled to ensure its systems were clean.
Updated
Asos customers receive phone alerts saying retailer has been hacked
Asos customers have been sent a phone alert saying the retailer has been hacked, and the online fashion retailer is investigating.
Customers received a mobile app notification on Tuesday, titled “Asos hacked”, which directed them to a Telegram account.
The message read: “Dear ASOS DPO [data protection officer] and IT, we have full compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it,” followed by the Telegram link.
Shares in the company tumbled almost 12%, making them the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 index.
It comes after a raft of UK retailers have been targeted by cyber attackers over the past two years, including Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods – as well as carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.
Updated
Europe needs to double its use of electricity by 2040 to reduce emissions but to also provide critical shock absorbers for gas and oil price spikes, Ursula von der Leyen has said, reports Lisa O’Carroll from Brussels.
The price of gas had soared 140% since the US-Israeli assault on Iran began on 28 February, while diesel has doubled in price, the European Commission president told parliamentarians in Strasbourg.
In total the EU has paid more than €100bn extra for fuel “without a single molecule extra of energy” being imported or produced. Von der Leyen said:
Today, electricity accounts for less than a quarter of our final energy consumption. Therefore, our Electrification Action Plan sets clear targets to double that by 2040.
Measures across the bloc were different according to need with France and Romania offering vouchers for the low-income households. It would also be prolonging state-aid energy focussed programme for industries, Accelerate EU, she announced as well as participating in the release of 100m barrels of oil, announced by the G7 last Friday.
Slowest fall in UK construction output since January, but housebuilding remains weak
Construction activity across the UK remained in decline last month, but the downturn was the least pronounced since the start of the year, according to a closely-watched survey.
The purchasing managers’ index for construction from S&P Global rose to an eight-month high of 46.1 in September from 44.3 in August, but remained well below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. It has been in decline since January last year.
A sharp downturn in housebuilding eased slightly but it remained the weakest area, followed by civil engineering, while commercial work showed only a small decline.
Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:
The downturn in UK construction output was the least marked since January. All three sub-sectors have seen a degree of stabilisation relative to the rapid declines reported in the second quarter of 2026. In September, commercial building work saw its smallest fall in activity since May 2025. House building was again the weakest performer as rising borrowing costs and unfavourable market conditions weighed on output.
Total new orders were relatively subdued in September as construction firms reported longer sales conversion cycles and clients deferred decision-making on major projects.
The new orders measure fell to a three-month low of 45.9 from 47.7, amid subdued demand, geopolitical tensions and rising input costs.
Companies’ costs rose at their slowest rate since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, but Moore said this was unlikely to last due to higher energy and transport costs.
Business optimism was the weakest since May.
S&P Global said its all-sector PMI survey, which includes data for services, manufacturing and construction, slipped to a three-month low of 51.5 in September from 51.8.
Euro reverses losses and rises against dollar, sterling as French bonds rally
The euro has reversed earlier losses and is now trading higher against the dollar, as French government bonds rallied, pushing their yields (or interest rates) lower.
The single currency sank to the lowest level since May 2025, below $1.12, on Monday, amid worries over France’s debt position and political uncertainty ahead of next year’s presidential election. Investors worried that the debt fears could spread to other countries such as Italy.
Reversing a 0.13% drop in early European trading, the single currency gained 0.2% versus the dollar, to $1.1245.
The euro also gained against the pound, rising 0.1% to 84.88 pence, after hitting a near-three month low of 84.61p on Monday, after a week of losses.
The pound eased against the euro on Tuesday as French bonds rallied from the previous session’s fall that helped propel sterling to an almost three-month high.
In oil markets, Brent crude is now down 1.4% at $98.85 a barrel, falling further below $100 a barrel.
Updated
Irish budget to address soaring price of home heating oil today
Soaring prices of home heating oil are expected to be addressed in today’s budget in Dublin with more than 700,000 homes, mostly in rural Ireland dependent on kerosene to heat their homes, reports my colleague Lisa O’Carroll from Brussels.
Figures from the government’s Central Statistics office last week showed the cost of home heating fuel had gone up 44% in the last year compared to petrol which up 9% and diesel by 15%.
On Friday, the G7 countries announced they would release 100m barrels of oil and diesel to ease supply as prices continue to be impacted by Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
While some oil is expected to be released within the next fortnight, a spokesperson for the EU said the allocations would be made by the International Energy Agency.
A spokesperson said the EU stood ready to convent an oil coordination group and energy task force to help member states bid for the oil.
Insurers could be on the hook for claims from AI agents going rogue
Also on the insurance front, insurers could be on the hook for multimillion-dollar claims related to AI agents going rogue.
Top bosses such as OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei could be held liable for the actions of their models, the Financial Times reported.
Breaches caused by autonomous AI agents breaking free of their parent companies’ controls, such as OpenAI’s hacking of the startup Hugging Face, have prompted insurers and their lawyers to study whether they could face potential lawsuits and damages.
Insurance broker Aon analysed more than 300 AI-related legal cases and found that insurers could be liable for claims under policies covering crime, intellectual property, media liability, cyber security, and technology errors and omissions, the FT said.
Top industry figures also said AI executives could be sued for the actions of models, with insurers potentially facing claims under “directors and officers” insurance policies, which cover executives if they are sued over their decisions or statements.
Lego fraudster among high-profile insurance fraud claims in 2025
A fraudster who submitted a series of false home insurance claims for supposedly stolen Lego sets and ended up in jail was one of several high-profile bogus claims last year.
Insurers uncovered £1.34bn worth of fraudulent claims in 2025, a 14% increase on the £1.18bn detected in 2024, according to the Association of British Insurers.
The lego fraudster was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment late last year after an investigation uncovered the claims were fabricated, following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
Between May 2021 and January 2022, Matthew Johnson, of Misterton, submitted a number of false claims to Axa Insurance, relating to alleged burglaries at properties in Shetland and Goole. The claims included high-value items such as MacBooks, televisions, gaming consoles, fishing equipment, and large quantities of collectible Lego sets. In total, Johnson received over £14,000 in insurance payouts across four separate claims.
Mark Allen, head of fraud and financial crime at the ABI, said:
Insurance fraud pushes up costs for everyone, making it more important than ever that as an industry, we continue to work together to detect, prevent and deter fraud across all lines.
Anyone considering committing insurance fraud should be under no illusion – it’s a serious crime with serious consequences, including a criminal conviction and imprisonment.
While the number of detected fraudulent claims fell by 2.7% to 93,900 cases, the value of scams rose sharply, in a sign of its growing scale and sophistication, the ABI said.
The average value of a fraudulent claim reached £14,300 last year – the second-highest level on record, just below the peak of £14,600 recorded in 2022.
Motor insurance was once again the area with the highest level of claims fraud, accounting for 55% of all cases. With 51,900 fraudulent motor claims worth £625m uncovered last year, the figures point to fewer but more costly cases. The average value rose to £12,000, the second-highest level since 2015.
A fraudster who orchestrated staged motor collisions using women he met online was sentenced after running a deliberate “crash for cash” scheme designed to generate fraudulent insurance claims.
Detective chief inspector Simon Klust, head of IFED, said:
Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and those who commit it increase the cost of premiums for honest customers.
These figures show that, on average, more than 250 fraudulent insurance claims are detected each day, and this is unfortunately likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
In property insurance, the number of detected fraudulent claims fell by 6.2% to 17,700, while their total value rose by 3.4% to £201m – bringing the average value to a record high of £11,400.
Travel recorded the sharpest increase in volume. Investigators uncovered a £300,000 travel insurance scam involving multiple fake identities, fabricated medical documents and websites submitted to support bogus medical emergency claims.
Exaggerated loss remains the most common type of fraud, with 26,900 cases identified. This is when someone deliberately increases the cost of a claim beyond its true value.
Ursula Jallow, director at the Insurance Fraud Bureau , said:
Insurance fraud is devastating. It costs honest consumers when times are already tough.
If anyone has information about insurance fraud, they can report it confidentially through our free CheatLine service.
Updated
Clarkson shares jump after profit upgrade amid 'record' freight rates in some areas
Shares in Clarkson jumped after the world’s largest shipping services provider upgraded its profit forecast, boosted by elevated freight rates amid geopolitical tensions.
While the environment remains “very volatile,” the company said it expected underlying profit before tax this year to be “not less than £135m” – above analysts’ predictions of £115.2m, and 49% higher than last year.
The Clarkson share price rose 6.8% on the news.
Higher freight rates triggered by the Middle East conflict and the strait of Hormuz closure have benefited the company, which posted record first-half profits in August.
The company reported strong trading in August and September, and said it had seen “record freight rates” in some areas. Its broking division delivered revenues significantly ahead of previous estimates, it said.
The ongoing geopolitical complexity has created further volatility across commodity and freight markets, accordingly in some areas we have seen record freight rates and this has also then passed through to asset prices.
European stock markets rise while government bond yields retreat
European shares are rising while government bond yields retreated, after soaring to multi-decade highs last week.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.8%, on track for a third session of share gains. In London, the FTSE 100 index advanced 82 points, or 0.8%, to 10,580.
The Danish biotech company Genmab is leading gains, up 8.1%, after it said that their blood cancer drug combination with US drugmaker AbbVie reduced the risk of disease progression or death in a late-stage clinical study.
Epcoritamab, jointly developed by the two companies to treat patients newly diagnosed with a type of lymphoma, is an immune-based therapy that helps the body’s T cells attack cancer cells
The combination treatment reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 51% in newly diagnosed patients compared with the current standard treatment, R-CHOP, alone.
Germany’s Dax rose 0.7%, France’s CAC added 0.5%, Italy’s FTSE MiB gained 1.1% and Spain’s Ibex climbed 0.9%.
On bond markets, the UK’s 10-year benchmark gilt yield dropped 6.5 basis points to 5.36%, while the 30-year yield fell a similar amount to 5.88%, bringing some relief to Andy Burnham’s government ahead of the budget on 28 October.
Brent crude drops below $100 a barrel after Saudi oil price cut
Oil prices have continued to fall, dropping below $100 a barrel.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell as low as $99.38 a barrel, and is now at $99.54 a barrel, down 0.8%. US light crude dropped more, 1.2% to $88.34 a barrel.
Saudi Arabia unexpectedly cut its oil prices for sale to Asia in November to six-year lows while raising them for northwest Europe and the Mediterranean, according to Reuters, which got hold of a pricing document on Monday.
The largest crude exporter in the Middle East set the November Arab Light crude oil official selling price to Asia at $5 a barrel below the average of Oman and Dubai prices, down $3 from the previous month. The discount for November is the widest since June 2020, Reuters data showed.
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Donald Trump said on Monday that he is “always” open to direct talks with Iran, while tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high.
FTSE 100 firm Informa to buy UK events group Clarion for £2.2bn
Informa, the FTSE 100 events business, has struck a £2.2bn deal to buy the US events organiser Clarion from the private equity firm Blackstone.
The £2bn takeover will add more than 100 events to Informa’s portfolio – from the defence and security exhibit DSEI held at London’s ExCel, to the comic book and pop culture themed AwesomeCon in Washington.
Stephen Carter, Informa’s chief executive, said the company was “accelerating the focus” on its core trade events business, as it also laid out plans to spin off its academic publishing arm, Taylor & Francis.
Informa told investors that in order to fund the Clarion deal, it will raise £940m through a share placing, which will include a £250m offer for armchair investors through the broker RetailBook.
The FTSE 100 group has struggled this year, with its shares slipping by 1%, as it was forced to reschedule several key events in the Middle East due to conflict in the region.
Last year Carter moved his residency from the UK to the UAE. Informa makes more than a third of its revenue in India, the Middle East and Asia. Its joint venture in Saudi Arabia, Tahaluf, makes annual revenue of more than $250m.
German factory orders slump in August
In Germany, manufacturing orders slumped in August, falling more than expected.
Factory orders tumbled 10.6% from the previous month, according to the federal statistics office, but were up 2.7% compared with August last year.
The main reason behind the monthly drop was a sharp decline in the “manufacture of other transport equipment” sector – aircraft, ships, trains, military vehicles, where new orders plummeted 61.5% after more than doubling in July due to an exceptionally high volume of large-scale orders in the manufacture of ships, railway rolling stock and aircraft.
In the three months to August, new orders rose 1.3% compared with the previous three months.
Introduction: Euro dips further as French central bank chief warns the country risks being ‘strangled by interest rates’
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
The euro remains under pressure amid French debt fears and political uncertainty across Europe, trading near a 17-month low against the dollar, down 0.13% to $1.1206.
The single currency has extended its 1.2% drop last week, and is down more than 4% this year, as investors worry that France’s high debt burden could threaten the stability of the wider eurozone.
The head of the French central bank has warned that the country risks being “strangled by interest rates” if it does not get to grips with its deficit.
Emmanuel Moulin, the governor of the Banque de France, told the Financial Times that the eurozone’s second-largest economy could win back investor confidence despite the “serious and worrying” moves on sovereign debt markets in recent days.
France is not Greece during the eurozone crisis. If it can pass a budget this year to reduce spending and narrow the deficit as the government has proposed, then markets will be reassured by this concrete step of fiscal consolidation.
But, he went on to say:
If we don’t act, there is indeed a risk of being gradually strangled by rising interest rates. We have to remain masters of our own destiny.
The French government is battling to control its stretched public finances in the run-up to next year’s presidential election, with teachers, students nurses and civil servants protesting against budget cuts.
A sell-off in French bonds, sending their yields soaring last week, eased on Monday. The interest rate that France pays to borrow over safer German debt on benchmark 10-year bonds, called the spread, widened, but then tightened again.
Mohit Kumar, chief European economist at Jefferies, said:
French [bond] spreads have tightened in the last two sessions, falling from an intra day high of over 150 basis points to 136bp currently. We don’t think that we are in a sovereign crisis.
Our fear is that as spreads move above 150bp, we could see some contagion risks not just to other French names, but also onto European peripherals. We have highlighted a number of times that deficit concerns should be a greater risk for investors than near term inflation. Market is going after the weakest link in the deficit picture which is France and the UK.
Asian stock markets rose, after a rally in technology stocks lifted the Nasdaq on Wall Street to a record close; supported by weaker-than-expected US jobs growth which dampened expectations of an interest hike from the Federal Reserve this month. Oil prices also retreated. However, US 10-year and 30-year Treasury bond yields hit fresh 24-year highs overnight.
AI heavyweight Nvidia gained 2.1% to a record closing high, lifting its market value to $5.76tn.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan climbed 1.2%. Japan’s Nikkei added 1.1%.
The Agenda
8.30am BST: Eurozone S&P Global Construction survey for September
9.30am BST: UK S&P Global Construction PMI for September
10am BST: Eurozone retail sales for August
UK chancellor meets with bank bosses
11am BST: Financial Conduct Authority annual meeting in Edinburgh
1.15pm BST: US ADP employment change weekly data
1.30pm BST: US trade for August
