FTSE 100 Live: Fed interest rates, retail sales, GDP December 9, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog covering the FTSE 100 and other big market moves. Investors are bracing for a crunch decision at the Federal Reserve this Wednesday, with markets pricing in a 25 basis point cut to bring interest rates down to 3.5-3.75 per cent. Forecasters will be taking a [...]
Former Entain execs take Gambling Commission to court over failed 888 bid December 9, 2025 The former CEO and chairman of Entain, the group behind Coral and Ladbrokes, are set to face the Gambling Commission at court on Tuesday over alleged misuse of private information. Kenny Alexander and Lee Feldman filed a civil case against the UK’s gambling regulator in October 2024. This action follows their failed 2023 leadership bid [...]
Huel and Moneybox founders head to No 10 as Reeves courts scale-ups December 9, 2025 The bosses of Huel and Moneybox were among dozens of founders headed to No10 on Monday evening, as the government wooed scale-ups with a sweeping package of tax and investment reforms unveiled in the Budget. Rachel Reeves used the Downing Street reception to promote what she claimed was the most significant overhaul of entrepreneur incentives [...]
How Natwest, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC fired up the FTSE 100 in 2025 December 9, 2025 If 2025 was supposed to be the year of the AI bubble, nobody told Britain’s banking giants. Amidst the noise of the US tech boom, the UK’s FTSE 100 banking heavyweights, Natwest, Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC, have staged a formidable, if understated, rally. Lloyds delivered an astonishing 75.8 per cent gain, while Barclays surged 65 [...]
Black Friday boost fails to materialise for Britain’s high streets December 9, 2025 UK retail sales failed to meet shops’ expectations this Black Friday as pre-budget jitters dampened spending. Retail sales increased by 1.4 per cent year on year in November, against a decline of 3.3 per cent in November 2024 and below the 12-month average growth of 2.5 per cent, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). [...]
Netflix holds Hollywood’s crown, but at what cost? December 9, 2025 If you have so much as glanced at any headlines in the past few days, you will have seen that Hollywood is entering a new era of streaming consolidation, with Netflix leading the way. The US giant has agreed a mega $72bn (£54bn) deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery’s film and TV studios, HBO Max, [...]
Trump won’t be able to resist shaping the future of American media December 9, 2025 Less than twenty years ago, Netflix was still sending DVDs through the post. That particular innovation helped to see off Blockbuster, which crashed from a valuation of around $5bn in the early 2000s to bankruptcy in 2011. Today, Netflix has a valuation north of $400bn and is swooping on a giant of the golden age [...]
Magnum only scoops €8bn valuation on stock market debut December 9, 2025 Unilever’s demerged Magnum Ice Cream Company netted a €7.8bn (£6.8bn) valuation on its stock market debut, heavily undershooting early analyst expectations at an initial public offering overshadowed by a long-running spat with the founders of Ben & Jerry’s. Shares in the ice cream group, which also owns the Cornetto and Wall’s brands, opened 60 cents [...]
Paramount crashes Netflix-Warner Bros party with £108bn rival bid December 8, 2025 Paramount Skydance has launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), throwing the film titan’s recent deal with streaming giant Netflix into uncertainty. On Monday, Paramount said its all-cash tender offer of $30 (£22.50) per share provides shareholders $18bn more than Netflix’s $27.75 per share offer. Paramount chief executive David Ellison argued the [...]
LIV Golf is Formula 1 and PGA Tour is IndyCar, says CEO O’Neil December 8, 2025 LIV Golf chief Scott O’Neil says he wants the challenger circuit to be the Formula 1 to the PGA Tour’s IndyCar. The PGA Tour remains home to most of the top players in men’s golf but is US-centric, while LIV Golf is more international in outlook and innovative in presentation but has few stars at [...]
