The FTSE 100 ended Wednesday a touch softer, down 49 points at 10,559, as markets sat back and waited to see whether talk of US-Iran talks could turn into anything concrete. You could feel the mood in the trading desks too—like everyone was listening for a knock, but it never really came.
Across the Atlantic, US stocks were mixed early: the Nasdaq was up 1.1% and the S&P 500 up 0.4%, while the Dow Jones slipped 0.5%. In London, the Footsie was slipping slightly lower, with risers and fallers broadly split for now, though a lot of the biggest names were still in the red. AstraZeneca, HSBC and Shell were among the decliners, and the weakness didn’t stay neatly inside one sector—defensives and cyclicals both got hit. GSK and Compass were down more than 1%, while miners like Rio Tinto and Glencore also looked weaker.
Still, not everything was gloomy. Gains were led by Entain, up 4%, with other US bookmakers doing well too, including Flutter and Draftkings. Barratt Redrow also climbed, up 3.2%, after a solid trading update this morning. Analyst Chris Beauchamp at IG told Misryoum newsroom that investors were staying cautious as uncertainty lingers around the Middle East. The tone remained tentative as markets weighed hopes for renewed US-Iran talks against Washington tightening pressure on Tehran’s maritime trade.
Oil sat around $95 a barrel—volatile, but not exactly panicking—leaving UK energy heavyweights more or less stuck in neutral. That backdrop also matters for the market’s wider “risk-on vs risk-off” mood: the FTSE can’t decide if this is a calm pause or just a pause. And it’s not just geopolitics. The UK financial watchdog confirmed cryptoassets will come into full regulation from October 2027, with Parliament specifying which activities fall within scope, including stablecoin issuance, trading platforms, dealing, custody and staking. The Financial Conduct Authority said it will publish the full rulebook this summer alongside new guidance, and firms can apply for authorisation from September 2026.
On the FTSE 250, the energy shifted. Rank Group was the standout riser, soaring 17% after upgrading its full-year profit outlook. Ceres Power wasn’t far behind—up 15% after launching a new solid oxide platform aimed at fast-growing demand from data centres and other energy-intensive users. It’s the kind of move that makes people glance twice at charts, because it’s not tied to the same broad macro story as, say, tobacco or banks.
There were also some “why is this happening” moments in the market chatter. Allbirds, the company that once looked like it had a certain runway locked down, announced it is moving from eco-friendly trainers to artificial intelligence infrastructure after securing a new $50 million convertible financing facility. Misryoum newsroom noted the company will “pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure” and become a “fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider”—which is… a dramatic pivot, whether you love it or not. Meanwhile, Misryoum analysis indicates LSEG’s AI-accessible Model Context Protocol server story is getting attention too, with UBS framing it as a “show-me” case but pointing to disclosures suggesting institutions accessing its MCP server increased from nine at the end of December 2025 to 67 by 20 February 2026.
Elsewhere, policy and data also hovered in the background. Chancellor Rachel Reeves heads to the IMF summit in Washington after a gloomy IMF forecast yesterday, and Donald Trump warned he could rip up the trade agreement with the UK. On the market floor, the message stayed consistent: investors are watching the next US-Iran headlines closely—because “something could be happening over the next two days,” as Trump said—and until then, London trades like it’s waiting in the wrong queue.
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