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FTSE 100 Live: Next sales jump; GSK profit upgrade

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The City PM Live Blog
The City PM FTSE 100 liveblog with your top market stories.

Good morning from the City PM liveblog team.

If there are fears about an AI bubble, no one’s telling the folk over on Wall Street.

Yesterday both Apple and Microsoft saw their stocks jump, making them both $4tn companies, joining an exclusive club of which chipmaker Nvidia is the only other member.

This was the first time Apple crossed the $4bn threshold, while Microsoft made a return after first hitting the milestone in July, spurred on by renewed investor enthusiasm over its AI plans.

“Apple shares are heading into the upcoming earnings print with a greater halo of positivity than any time in the past year,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote.

“Despite missing out on AI so far, Apple hitting the $4 trillion market cap club is a watershed moment for Cupertino and Big Tech,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. “This is a testament to the best consumer franchise in the world.”

Google owner Alphabet and Instagram parent Meta, meanwhile, have recently hit $3tn and $2tn market caps respectively, while Tesla and Amazon round out the so-called ‘magnificent seven’ that collectively make up about a third of the S&P 500 index.

But concerns persist over whether current valuations can be sustained if AI-driven enthusiasm cools. The International Monetary Fund earlier this month warned a downturn in investor expectations over the returns delivered by AI investment could trigger a sharp downturn in valuations akin to the dotcom crash of 2000.

Here’s a summary of our top headlines from yesterday: