From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
The FTSE 100 finished in the green on Wednesday while US markets slumped, following news that the US economy contracted in the first part of this year.
London’s blue-chip index ended the day in the green, rising 31 points to finish the day at 8495, a 0.4% rise.
But on Wall Street, the S&P 500 was down 1% as European markets were closing, while the Dow Jones was down 0.74%, both recovering from even steeper falls.
The UK market also slumped during the afternoon after the news of a 0.3% fall in US gross domestic product (GDP) for the first three months of 2025, before eventually clawing back the losses.
Kallum Pickering, chief economist at Peel Hunt, said the fall “is not the headline US President Donald Trump would have hoped for to mark his first 100 days back in office”.
He added: “However, the first quarter GDP drop is down entirely to his administration’s misguided trade policies – which had been signalled on the campaign trail.”
Elsewhere, Germany’s Dax rose 0.1% and France’s Cac 40 increased 0.4%.
Sterling was down 0.5% against the dollar at 1.3338, while it was 0.2% down against the euro at 1.1757.
In company news, Barclays’ profits surged by nearly a fifth thanks to a boom in trading activity sparked by the US trade war.
The UK banking giant reported a better-than-expected 19% rise in pre-tax profits but it also said it set aside more cash for bad debts due to worries over the American economy.
The group said it “continues to monitor the heightened uncertainty in the near-term macroeconomic outlook, especially in the US”.
Barclays has an exposure to the tariff woes and US economy through its sizeable operations in America, where it has 20 million customers.
Shares in the group fell 1.4% on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, drugmaker GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) said it is “well positioned” to cope with any financial impact from changes to US tariff rules.
It came as the FTSE 100 giant revealed a rise in sales as weakness in its vaccine division was offset by growth in speciality medicines.
This came on the back of a boost from its speciality medicines division, where sales rose 17% on the back of strong demand for oncology, respiratory and HIV treatments.
Shares rose 3.7%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Smith & Nephew, up 58p to 1054p, CocaCola HBC, up 146p to 3900p, GSK, up 51.5p to 1483.5p, Pearson, up 41.5p to 1196.5p, and SSE, up 48p to 1692p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Glencore, down 19.5p to 244.4p, Anglo American, down 98.5p to 2029p, Antofagasta, down 61p to 1633p, HSBC, down 23.6p to 832p, and JD Sports, down 2.16p to 78.58p.