Shell shares slump after earnings rocket on oil surge May 7, 2026 Shell kicked off a mega share buyback following a bumper first quarter that breezed past expectations on the back of booming oil trading. The FTSE 100 oil major recorded earnings of $6.9bn (£5bn), cruising past the consensus pencilled in by analysts of $6.4bn. It also marked a significant uplift on the $3.3bn pocketed in the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks down on election day; oil back below $100 as Iran deal hangs in balance May 7, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. It’s local election day in the UK and Keir Starmer’s premiership is hanging in the balance as his Labour Party prepares to take a drubbing in council boroughs across the country. Gilt yields rose at their fastest rate earlier this week as the market prepares [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jump; oil dips below $100 as Trump says Iran deal close May 6, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Brent crude dipped below $100 at Wednesday lunchtime after Donald Trump has hailed “great progress” towards a “final agreement” with Iran, prompting a rally in the FTSE, Asian markets and Wall Street. In a sudden reversal late last night, President Trump said he will pause [...]
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is right – our energy policy is ‘all over the place’ May 6, 2026 Punchy interventions from chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe are not rare; most announcements from his company, Ineos, are enriched with a missive from the billionaire on where exactly the UK is going wrong. But these are no mere PR ploys. The stakes are high and he knows what he’s talking about. Yesterday’s confirmation of his [...]
Jim Ratcliffe warns Britain’s energy policy is ‘all over the place’ as Ineos explores North America with Shell May 5, 2026 Europe and the UK’s approach to energy policy is “all over the place” and eroding the region’s security and growth prospects, Jim Ratcliffe has said in an announcement confirming Ineos’s plans to expand its oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico. In a statement announcing Ineos’s fresh investment in the US alongside Shell, [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Gilt yields surge over Starmer fears; Intel, Pinterest shares rocket May 5, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Gilt yields have risen to their highest rate in nearly thirty years, as markets weigh up the prospect of an ousted Keir Starmer and lurch to a more left-wing government that might follow. The yield on 30-year government bonds rose 11 basis points on Tuesday [...]
Petrol retailers vindicated after Reeves ‘profiteering’ claims May 1, 2026 Petrol retailers have been vindicated of “price gouging”, pouring cold water on the government’s accusations of profiteering from the war in Iran. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that higher fuel prices in the UK were caused by the rising cost of oil, rather than by retailers expanding their margins to profit from the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop amid US-Iran war mixed messaging; House prices up May 1, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Markets are scrambling for some messaging this morning as tensions around the Iran war drag on. Donald Trump faced a deadline for today whether to formally end the war in Iran or make the case to the US Congress for extending it. But an official [...]
After a ‘stunning’ update, what does the future hold for long-suffering BP? April 30, 2026 BP wowed shareholders with its first quarter results – doubling profit and bolstering its balance sheet. But with an activist breathing down its neck, its new boss Meg O’Neill isn’t out of the woods yet, writes Ali Lyon As she sat down to pen her first email to BP’s 100,000 staff, Meg O’Neill opted against [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop as oil holds firm over $110; UK growth slashed April 29, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Oil prices are holding firm tipping over the $110 mark, bringing the cost of a barrel closer to the highs of $118 it peaked at earlier in the Iran war. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil – advanced another one per cent on [...]
