There is 'panic on the streets of London' as Smiths (SMIN) missed headline profit and margin targets. While there were some pluses in the engineering outfit's annual results to end July, it is difficult to dress up the fact that headline profit was limp. The share price tanked 8% to £16.84, a six-week low and back to May 2024 levels. Heaven knows, investors are miserable now. This will come as...

Following a stunning run into the numbers, shares in Card Factory (CARD) cheapened 16% to 121p after the value-focused greeting cards-to-party supplies retailer delivered a drop in first half earnings and warned full year profits will be second half weighted. While some investors took profits on the unnerving news, Card Factory actually delivered robust first half sales with all channels in gro...

Equities in Europe powered higher on Tuesday morning, with some stimulus measures out of China supporting stocks, before focus shifts to US data as the week progresses. The FTSE 100 index opened up 35.02 points, 0.4%, at 8,294.73. The FTSE 250 was up 11.61 points, 0.1%, at 20,856.73, and the AIM All-Share was up 1.96 points, 0.3%, at 746.28. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.4% at 829.49, the Cboe UK 25...

Stocks in London held firm at the close on Monday, while the euro ebbed amid a slew of weak purchasing managers' index prints. The FTSE 100 index closed up 29.72 points, or 0.4%, at 8,259.71. The FTSE 250 ended up 13.28 points, or 0.1%, at 20,8451.82, but the AIM All-Share closed down 1.30 points, 0.2%, at 744.32. The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.2% at 825.65, the Cboe UK 250 down slightly at 18,356....

Shares in Rightmove (RMV) jumped nearly 2% higher to 683p, as Australian property listing company REA Group (REA:ASX) controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp increased its offer for the online property portal. Rightmove said it had 'received a third unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional proposal from REA for a possible cash and share offer at 341 pence in cash and 0.0422 new REA shar...

London's FTSE 100 slipped slightly heading into Monday afternoon, as investors digest what was a busy week of interest rate action, while drab eurozone data put the European Central Bank in focus and hurt the euro. Elsewhere on mainland Europe, Frankfurt's DAX 40 traded resiliently in the face of weak German data, but French banks weighed on the CAC 40 on tax hike fears for larger companies. Th...

Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) was on the back foot on Monday after reporting disappointing late-stage trial results for Dato-DXd, its precision advanced breast cancer experimental drug. The news sent the shares down 1.4% to £116.10, a new three month low and follows fast on the heels of similarly disappointing results from lung cancer trials released in August. WHY WERE...

Equities in London opened in the red on Monday morning, as AstraZeneca released disappointing trial results while REA upped the ante with a sweetened takeover bid for fellow property portal Rightmove. Monday's economic diary has several flash composite purchasing managers' index releases including from the US and UK. The FTSE 100 index traded down 6.78 points, 0.1%, at 8,223.21. The FTSE 250 wa...

The FTSE 100 and 250 closed in the red on Friday, as this week's US interest rate cut was offset by a disappointing consumer confidence reading. The FTSE 100 index closed down 98.73 points, or 1.2%, at 8,229.99. The FTSE 250 ended down 330.87 points, or 1.6%, at 20,831.84, and the AIM All-Share closed down 0.3%, or 2.46 points, at 745.62. The Cboe UK 100 ended down 1.2% at 823.77, the Cboe UK 2...

Stocks in Europe returned some of the prior day's gains on Friday, as sentiment took a knock from gloomy updates from FedEx and Mercedes. The FTSE 100 index was down 40.78 points, 0.5%, at 8,287.94, above early lows. The FTSE 250 slid 199.96 points, 0.9%, at 20,962.75, and the AIM All-Share eased 1.27 points, 0.2%, at 746.81. The Cboe UK 100 fell 0.5% to 829.89, the Cboe UK 250 dipped 1.0% to 1...

Investors often look to logistics giant FedEx (FDX:NYSE) for clues on the state of the US and global economy and the latest health check is not encouraging. The company missed first quarter Wall Street earnings by a wide margin and lowered fiscal 2025 profit guidance, sending its shares down 12% in pre-market trading. The news sent shares in rival United Parcel Service (UPS:NYSE) down 2.4%, whi...

Nike's (NKE:NYSE) shares surged 6.8% higher to $86.5 in after-hours trading on Wall Street after the company announced that veteran Elliott Hill is coming out of retirement to take the reins as chief executive officer. You can see why the mood has been lifted. John Donahoe, who has been in the hot seat since January 2020, will retire on 13 October 2024 after a patchy stint running the iconic A...

Michael Demare, non-executive chair of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) has bought 2,000 shares at £117.93 for a total value of £235,855 on 13 September. Demare's move comes after the pharmaceutical giant's shares recently fell to a one-month low after the UK's largest quoted company released disappointing data from a late-stage clinical trial of its precision lung-cancer drug DatoDxD....