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Stock markets updates and business news from Thursday
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Nvidia became the world’s first-ever $4 trillion-valued company during Wednesday’s trading session after its share price initially rose more than two per cent above $164. Domestically, the FTSE 100 has started positively on Thursday, hitting a new all-time high after rising one per cent in morning trading. Bitcoin also hit a new high above $111,000.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, however, faced more pressure for her Mansion House speech next month as building societies banded together to write a letter pleading for the cash ISA limit to not be cut.
Meanwhile, wealth tax talks continue to generate debate as Keir Starmer didn’t rule it out, but also said the country couldn’t just “tax our way to growth”. Economics experts have told The Independent such a ruling wouldn’t work to bridge the public purse funding gap and could have an adverse effect on longer-term finances.
Follow The Independent’s live coverage of the latest stock market and business news here:
Brent Crude Oil prices have been slowly sticking closer and closer to the $70 mark of late, but they are down 1.01 per cent today back to $69.48.
Gold on the other hand is up 0.4 per cent to $3,334 – while bitcoin has dropped very slightly from earlier but is still up 1.8 per cent for the day, above $111,000.
Worth noting the FTSE 100 is still up 1.18 per cent too, its best day in a while.
Housebuilder Vistry has welcomed “unprecedented” Government funding for cheaper homes in the UK, as it said affordability challenges for first-time buyers have persisted.
The London-listed company said it was expecting lower profits for the first half of its financial year after selling fewer homes.
It completed the sale of 6,800 homes over the first six months of the year – less than the 7,792 it sold the same time last year.
Nearly three quarters of the total Incorporated homes sold for its partners – which include housing associations, local authorities, and private rent groups – while the rest was for the open housing market.
Vistry said demand from its affordable housing partners was weaker due to uncertainty ahead of the Chancellor’s spending review in June.
The FTSE 100 is still on the rise today, now up 1.1 per cent approaching midday.
That’s despite fresh tariff threats from the US over various sectors, including a potential 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals.
AstraZeneca, the biggest company on the index in the UK, rose more than two per cent this morning.
In the US, however, the S&P 500 is projected to fall by 0.15 per cent according to futures markets, with the Nasdaq set to drop 0.1 per cent.
In Europe, the German DAX is up 0.3 per cent with France’s CAC 40 up 0.68 per cent.
A water company has agreed to pay £24 million after the water regulator found a “range of failures” in how the water company managed its wastewater treatment works and sewer network.
South West Water will pay the sum after an Ofwat investigation found the company had spilled wastewater in the environment when it should not have done.
A lack of adequate management systems, including oversight from its senior leaders and board, meant it did not meet its legal obligations.
South West Water proposed the £24 million enforcement package, to be paid by the company and its shareholders, to invest in its systems and address the failures.
More from Anna Wise, PA:
First-time buyers could get wider access to mortgages after the Bank of England (BoE) loosened its rules on lending.
Until now, just under 10 per cent of new mortgages issued are for valuations exceeding 4.5 times the income of a borrower.
That is now set to rise to 15 per cent across the industry, with some building societies and banks now able to offer an even higher number of new mortgages at that level.
BoE estimates suggest 36,000 extra mortgages with higher loan-to-income ratios could be handed out each year as a result of the change.
Barclays have made another round of cuts to mortgage rates, following one earlier this week – the battle is really ramping up between lenders with hundreds of thousands of fixed deals expiring across the rest of the year.
There are several sub-4 per cent products on offer across the industry now and Barclays have added another few – in particular what they claim is the joint-lowest rate on the remortgage market.
That’s a 3.83% EMC Reward 2 Year Fixed deal, for a £999 product fee at 60% loan to value.
Barclays analysts expect next week’s official inflation data to show the headline CPI rate to hold unchanged for June.
In May it was 3.4 per cent, unchanged from April once an original error was factored in, so this would represent a third straight month of steady inflation rate.
Within the figures, Barclays expect services to decrease but food price inflation to continue increasing.
Notably, they do not expect the data to push the Bank of England away from an expected interest rate cut next month.
It’s not just the FTSE 100 at a new high.
Some time shortly after 3am today, bitcoin pushed above the $110,000 glass ceiling it had been testing for quite a while, setting a new all-time record.
It briefly hit around $111,450 before pulling back a little – but daytime trading is fairly solid so far and the leading cryptocurrency is sat just above $111,300 now.
Big morning for the FTSE 100 – it’s up very nearly a full one per cent to a new all-time high.
The big miners are posting the largest gains in morning trading – Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Glencore are all up between 3.9 and 4.5 per cent – but there are plenty of rising stocks elsewhere.
WPP has recovered 3 per cent this morning after yesterday’s huge drop, with most of the financials up more than 1 per cent too.
Digital bank Revolut is continuing its expansion plans by seeking to raise $1bn (£730m) through a sale of existing and new shares.
The British-based bank would be valued at $65bn (£48bn) in total, up from $45bn last year, reports the FT.
Revolut this week launched an investing ISA for UK users within the app. It has around 50m customers worldwide.
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