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UK com­pan­ies attrac­ted a surge of interest from for­eign buy­ers eager to cap­it­al­ise on cheap valu­ations this year, driv­ing Brit­ish deal­mak­ing to a post­pan­demic high. Over­seas bid­ders agreed $142bn in takeovers of Brit­ish com­pan­ies, accord­ing to data from the Lon­don Stock Exchange Group — a 74 per cent uptick from 2024. The sharp rise out­paced a 20 per cent increase in over­all UK mer­gers and acquis­i­tions to a total value of $367bn, the highest level since the pan­demic-era boom. “The UK stock mar­ket remains mater­i­ally under­val­ued,” said Philip Noblet, head of UK and Ire­land invest­ment bank­ing at Jef­fer­ies. “The rat­ings are still poor [com­pared] to rival com­pan­ies in the US but also in Europe, so people keep com­ing . . . We’re going to see more stra­tegic interest from over­seas in 2026 and for big­ger com­pan­ies,” he added.

▸ Wall Street’s Nas­daq extends bounce­back as tech jit­ters recede ▸ Japan­ese bond yields climb to their highest level since 1999 ▸ Global crude oil, gold and bit­coin prices all advance Wall Street stocks rose yes­ter­day as mar­kets exten­ded a rebound from recent tech jit­ters. The Nas­daq Com­pos­ite index was up 1 per cent by early after­noon in New York while the blue-chip S&P 500 index rose 0.8 per cent. The moves con­tin­ued the pre­vi­ous day’s rally when equit­ies were boos­ted by lower than expec­ted infla­tion data and memory chip­maker Micron’s strong earn­ings. Micron’s res­ults had “reignited optim­ism in the AI trade”, said Ulrike Hoff­mann-Burch­ardi, global head of equit­ies at UBS Global Wealth Man­age­ment. Dis­ap­point­ing earn­ings from Oracle and Broad­com last week triggered a broader tech-sell off amid linger­ing con­cerns over high tech sec­tor valu­ations. Shares in Oracle climbed 7.7 per cent after Tik­Tok owner Byte­Dance signed a deal with the com­pany and oth­ers to allow it to con­tinue oper­at­ing the app in the US, resolv­ing a year-long saga over the coun­try’s national secur­ity law.

OpenAI has hired former chan­cel­lor George Osborne to lead the start-up’s work build­ing “demo­cratic” arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence for the world. The archi­tect of the former Con­ser­vat­ive gov­ern­ment’s aus­ter­ity pro­gramme is set to play a lead­ing role within the high-spend­ing com­pany as the head of OpenAI for Coun­tries, an over­seas expan­sion of the $500bn Star­gate ini­ti­at­ive to build data centres in the US. The Chat­GPT maker has billed Star­gate as a way to ensure Amer­ican com­pan­ies and val­ues are at the found­a­tion of the global build-out of AI, provid­ing a bul­wark against Chinese altern­at­ives. “I asked myself the ques­tion, ‘What’s the most excit­ing and prom­ising com­pany in the world right now?’ The answer I believe is OpenAI,” said Osborne, adding that his work would help “soci­et­ies around the world share the oppor­tun­ity this power­ful tech­no­logy brings”.

▸ Wall Street retreats as eco­nomic data sug­gests a weak­en­ing labour mar­ket ▸ Big Tech stocks steady after heavy losses in recent ses­sions ▸ US gov­ern­ment bond prices rise but dol­lar slides against major cur­ren­cies US stocks slipped yes­ter­day after eco­nomic data sug­ges­ted a weak­en­ing labour mar­ket in the world’s largest eco­nomy. The blue-chip S&P 500 index was down 0.5 per cent by lunch­time in New York while the tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite slipped 0.1 per cent. Both indices remain close to record highs. Some of the big US tech stocks took a breather after heavy losses in recent days, which began after dis­ap­point­ing earn­ings from Oracle and Broad­com last week. Oracle was up 1.6 per cent and Broad­com rose 0.4 per cent. Offi­cial data showed that the US unem­ploy­ment rate rose to 4.6 per cent in Novem­ber, the highest level since Septem­ber 2021, and above eco­nom­ists’ expect­a­tions of 4.4 per cent.

Fed­eral Reserve gov­ernor Stephen Miran has said that “phantom infla­tion” is dis­tort­ing the US cent­ral bank’s decision-mak­ing and caus­ing it to keep interest rates too high. Miran, a staunch ally of Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump and vocal pro­ponent of lower rates, said yes­ter­day that poli­cy­makers should dis­reg­ard near-term “noise” and set bor­row­ing costs for the long term. “We must be thought­ful in con­sid­er­ing genu­ine under­ly­ing infla­tion­ary pres­sures,” Miran told an audi­ence at Columbia Uni­versity. The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points at each of its past three meet­ings. Last week it reduced them to a three-year low of between 3.5 and 3.75 per cent. The rate-set­ting Fed­eral Open Mar­ket Com­mit­tee has been divided over the scale of the cuts and whether to pri­or­it­ise risks to infla­tion or the labour mar­ket. Three of its mem­bers dis­sen­ted from last week’s decision — includ­ing Miran, who wanted a lar­ger cut of 50bp.

▸ Wall Street’s AI stocks retreat as investor jit­ters reignite over valu­ations ▸ Euro notches fourth suc­cess­ive day of gains to hit highest level since Octo­ber ▸ Oil prices ease as Zelenskyy says he will give up Nato mem­ber­ship demand Stocks linked to arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence mostly fell yes­ter­day, con­tinu­ing last week’s sell-off as investor jit­ters reignited around AI share valu­ations and high cap­ital spend­ing. Chip­maker Broad­com was down 4.8 per cent by early after­noon in New York, hav­ing plunged more than 15 per cent in the three trad­ing days since last week’s record high. Oracle was down 2.8 per cent, also extend­ing last week’s falls. Shares in the two com­pan­ies have fallen heav­ily since both repor­ted res­ults last week amid resur­gent con­cerns around AI-linked com­pan­ies’ soar­ing invest­ments in infra­struc­ture.

Net­flix has agreed an $83bn takeover of Warner Bros Dis­cov­ery, hand­ing it con­trol of one of Hol­ly­wood’s most cel­eb­rated stu­dios and cre­at­ing a global enter­tain­ment power­house. The deal will trans­form the stream­ing giant into the dom­in­ant player in Hol­ly­wood, cap­ping its relent­lessly dis­rupt­ive rise since it was foun­ded as a DVD rental com­pany almost three dec­ades ago. The stream­ing giant will secure a lib­rary that includes the Harry Pot­ter fran­chise and HBO’s premium pro­gram­ming Under the deal, Net­flix will secure a coveted lib­rary of con­tent includ­ing the Harry Pot­ter and Bat­man fran­chises, WBD’s stream­ing busi­ness and the premium pro­gram­ming of HBO. WBD will con­tinue with a spin-off of its cable tele­vi­sion net­works, includ­ing CNN, Dis­cov­ery and Turner, into a sep­ar­ate com­pany before the stu­dios and stream­ing busi­nesses are sold to Net­flix. Net­flix saw off rivals Com­cast and Para­mount in a bid­ding war over­seen by WBD boss David Zaslav, one of the most power­ful fig­ures in the industry.

▸ US stocks near record highs after infla­tion data lifts hopes of Fed rate cut ▸ Green­back up slightly against bas­ket of other major cur­ren­cies. ▸ European equit­ies mixed, with French index dip­ping as Ger­many’s climbs US stocks edged up yes­ter­day, near­ing record highs after infla­tion data that investors judged will keep the Fed­eral Reserve on track to cut interest rates next week. The blue-chip S&P 500 index had risen by 0.2 per cent by early after­noon in New York, while the tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite had also gained 0.2 per cent. Equit­ies’ muted gains came as per­sonal con­sump­tion expendit­ures infla­tion fig­ures for Septem­ber, delayed by the gov­ern­ment shut­down, rein­forced expect­a­tions that the Fed would cut interest rates at its meet­ing this month. Core PCE — the cent­ral bank’s pre­ferred meas­ure — was slightly lower than expec­ted year on year, at 2.8 per cent, down 0.1 per cent from August. Monthly core PCE stayed steady at 0.2 per cent.

Bond investors have warned the US Treas­ury about Kevin Has­sett’s poten­tial appoint­ment as Fed­eral Reserve chair, amid fears that he would cut interest rates aggress­ively to please Don­ald Trump. The Treas­ury last month soli­cited feed­back on Has­sett and other can­did­ates from exec­ut­ives at Wall Street banks, asset man­age­ment firms and other par­ti­cipants in the debt mar­ket, accord­ing to people famil­iar with the con­ver­sa­tions. The dis­cus­sions took place before Treas­ury sec­ret­ary Scott Bes­sent held his second round of inter­views with can­did­ates to replace Jay Pow­ell as Fed chair when his term expires in May 2026, these people said. Has­sett, the White House’s senior eco­nomic offi­cial, has emerged as a fron­trun­ner for the pos­i­tion in recent weeks, as Trump and Bes­sent have cut the list of can­did­ates from 11 ini­tial con­tenders. Trump said on Tues­day he planned to name his pick for Fed chair “early” next year and sig­nalled Has­sett was a “poten­tial” con­tender.

▸ Pound jumps against the dol­lar amid signs of strength in UK eco­nomy ▸ US blue-chip and tech-heavy indices inch higher in early trad­ing ▸ Brent crude climbs to $63 a bar­rel while gold remains roughly flat The pound jumped against the dol­lar yes­ter­day, put­ting it on course for its best day since May, as stronger eco­nomic activ­ity triggered an unwind­ing of neg­at­ive bets against the cur­rency. Signs of strength in the UK eco­nomy, com­bined with a weaker dol­lar, pushed ster­ling up 0.9 per cent to $1.333, its highest level for more than a month. A closely watched sur­vey showed yes­ter­day that UK busi­ness activ­ity expan­ded at a stronger pace than expec­ted, paint­ing a rosier pic­ture of the coun­try’s eco­nomy. The S&P Global UK Com­pos­ite pur­chas­ing man­agers’ index for Novem­ber came in at 51.2, com­pared with ana­lysts’ expect­a­tions of 50.5. A read­ing above 50 indic­ates expan­sion in activ­ity since the pre­vi­ous month.

OpenAI’s huge early lead in the race to dom­in­ate arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is under the greatest pres­sure since Chat­GPT’s launch, as rivals Google and Anthropic gain ground in the cut­ting-edge sec­tor. Three years on from the debut of its pop­u­lar chat­bot, the $500bn start-up is grap­pling with the real­ity of soar­ing data centre costs, the tech­nical chal­lenges of remain­ing at the fron­tier of AI and the con­stant battle to retain tal­ent. It is also facing a resur­gent Google, with the release last month of Gem­ini 3, Google’s latest large lan­guage model, which is con­sidered to have leapfrogged OpenAI’s GPT-5 and achieved gains from the model train­ing pro­cess that have eluded OpenAI in recent months. “It’s quite a strong dif­fer­ence with the world we had two years ago where OpenAI was lead­ing ahead of every­one else,” said Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief sci­ence officer of open-source start-up Hug­ging Face. “It’s a new world.”

▸ Global bond yields jump after BoJ gov­ernor hints at interest rate increase ▸ Tech sec­tor leads US stocks down as investors scale back expos­ure to risk ▸ Bit­coin under fur­ther pres­sure and falls 7% to be down 20% in past month Global bond mar­kets dropped yes­ter­day after the Bank of Japan sig­nalled that it could raise interest rates later this month. Japan’s two-year gov­ern­ment bond yield jumped above 1 per cent for the first time since 2008 yes­ter­day after Bank of Japan gov­ernor Kazuo Ueda indic­ated that the cent­ral bank might raise interest rates this month. Longer-term debt also fell, with the 10-year yield up 0.07 per­cent­age points to 1.87 per cent. The jump in Japan­ese yields, which move inversely with price, rippled through fixed income mar­kets, spark­ing declines from Ger­many to the US. US Treas­ury yields yes­ter­day recor­ded their biggest daily rise in a month, with the two-year yield rising 0.05 per­cent­age points to 3.54 per cent as traders scaled back expect­a­tions of interest rate cuts in 2026. 

Valu­ations of US tech stocks such as Nvidia, Alpha­bet, Microsoft and Meta have become “stretched” as investors are driven by “fears of miss­ing out”, the European Cent­ral Bank said yes­ter­day. The warn­ing, in the cent­ral bank’s latest Fin­an­cial Sta­bil­ity Review, fol­lows sim­ilar cau­tions from insti­tu­tions includ­ing the IMF and the Bank of Eng­land over high valu­ations of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence stocks. “Cur­rent mar­ket pri­cing does not appear to reflect per­sist­ently elev­ated vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies and uncer­tain­ties,” the ECB said. Since the tem­por­ary sell-off in April over US Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump’s trade tar­iffs, mar­kets had been driven by a “renewed risk-on sen­ti­ment” that had pushed “already high valu­ations even higher”, the ECB said in the review. It added that investors were either hop­ing that “tail risks will not mater­i­al­ise” or were being driven by “fears of miss­ing out on a con­tin­ued rally”.

▸ US eco­nomic data tops expect­a­tions and pushes global stocks higher ▸ Amer­ican tech stocks return to form, with Nvidia rebound­ing after fall ▸ UK shares close higher after Budget day as chan­cel­lor’s plans wel­comed Global stocks ral­lied yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing bet­ter than expec­ted US eco­nomic data. The tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite index had climbed 1 per cent by early after­noon in New York, with Nvidia rebound­ing 1.7 per cent after the pre­vi­ous day’s falls. The blue-chip S&P 500 was up 0.9 per cent. Dell rose 6.4 per cent after the tech com­pany raised its annual fore­casts, due to strong demand for its AI serv­ers. “The mar­ket is digest­ing the Google move,” said Man­ish Kabra, head of US equity strategy at Société Générale, refer­ring to the release of Google’s Gem­ini 3 model, which promp­ted Nvidia’s ini­tial sell-off. “If Google is one of the lead­ing AI con­tenders, it raises expect­a­tions on AI long-term cap­ab­il­it­ies.”

A Budget tax raid on salary sac­ri­fice schemes is set to raise £3bn-£4bn, hit­ting busi­ness and encour­aging employ­ers to cut pen­sion pay­ments to staff. The move by Rachel Reeves is expec­ted to be one of the biggest meas­ures in next week’s Budget, with people briefed on the plans fore­cast­ing that it will raise more than the £2bn pre­vi­ously floated. The plan would reduce the amount of money people can sac­ri­fice from their pay cheques to put in their pen­sion pots without pay­ing national insur­ance. It faces strong push­back from busi­nesses, which would face the brunt of the tax rise and have already seen costs soar as a res­ult of the chan­cel­lor’s decision to increase national insur­ance for employ­ers in her Budget last year. Last week, Reeves reversed course on plans to break Labour’s mani­festo vow by increas­ing income tax after weeks of pre­par­ing the ground for the move, pla­cing the focus on other meas­ures.