Wall Street stocks wobbled on Wednesday, hovering near record highs, as investors mulled fresh jobs data and the US intervention in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) headed lower, following a record close the previous day, and European stocks rose as eurozone inflation eased to 2.0% in December, matching market consensus and back to the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) target.
In the US, ADP’s December update on private sector employment showed 41,000 jobs added in December, slightly missing expectations after business job creation essentially stalled in the final months of 2025.
Those releases set the stage for Friday’s December jobs report, which has taken on critical importance as investors view it as a key test of whether the economy is cooling enough to justify Federal Reserve policy changes in the months ahead. Investors also get a peek at November’s JOLTS data, showing the number of job openings in the market, as well as the number of Americans who quit or were laid off.
Trump’s Venezuela intervention remains in sharp focus, however. The president said Venezuela would send millions of barrels of oil (CL=F, BZ=F) to the US. He added that the oil was worth up to $2.8bn (£2.1bn) and would be sold at market price.
Posting on his Truth Social site, Trump said: “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.”
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”
His comments come after he said the US oil industry would be “up and running” in Venezuela within 18 months and that he expected huge investments to pour into the country.
There are millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil stashed on tankers and in storage tanks due to the US blockage imposed by Trump.
Increasing the country’s production of oil would be expensive for US firms. Venezuelan oil is also heavy and more difficult to refine, with Chevron (CVX) the only US company operating in the country at present.
Read more: Trump’s plan to seize Venezuelan oil pushes crude prices lower
China denounced the US as a “bully” after Trump’s administration said it had persuaded Venezuela to divert supplies from Beijing.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference: “The United States’ brazen use of force against Venezuela and its demand for ‘America First’ when Venezuela disposes of its own oil resources are typical acts of bullying.”
“These actions seriously violate international law, gravely infringe upon Venezuela’s sovereignty, and severely damage the rights of the Venezuelan people.”
Elsewhere, traders were also assessing Trump’s plans for Greenland, after the White House said on Tuesday that the president is mulling options for acquiring the territory, including potential use of the US army.
London’s benchmark index (^FTSE) was 0.7% lower in afternoon trade, with shares in energy companies dropping.
Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) rose 0.9% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris was hovering over the flatline.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was also treading water.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) wavered around the flatline, coming off a record-high close for the latter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was also roughly flat after the blue-chip index closed above 49,000 for the first time.
The pound was flat against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) at 1.3497.
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As of 15:31:22 GMT. Market open.
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Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) again rejected a takeover offer from Paramount Skydance (PSKY), telling shareholders that the offer “remains inferior” to Netflix’s (NFLX) $72 billion merger agreement.
According to Bloomberg, on 22 December, Paramount reiterated an offer to buy shares at $30 each, with billionaire Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount boss David Ellison, personally guaranteeing $40.4 billion in equity financing. Paramount also included a higher break-up fee.
But Warner Bros. urged shareholders to rebuff the hostile takeover bid, citing the large amount of borrowing required for the deal.
“Paramount’s offer continues to provide insufficient value, including terms such as an extraordinary amount of debt financing that create risks to close and lack of protections for our shareholders if a transaction is not completed,” Warner Bros. Discovery board chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. wrote in a statement.
Warner Bros stock rose 0.1% after the open, while Paramount and Netflix shares also edged up about 0.3%.
Competition from online retailers are squeezing high street brands, retail experts have said, after it was announced that Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop (TOFS) were being put into administration.
Claire’s could not “evolve fast enough” to compete with “nimble online platforms” such as Temu and TikTok Shop, according to Nicholas Found, head of commercial content at Retail Economics.
Temu’s ultra-low pricing and TikTok Shop’s ability to turn its social media users into customers has diminished the relevance of traditional high street players, “especially in fashion accessories where impulse buys are easy to substitute”, he said.
Similarly, Sean Moran, a restructuring and insolvency partner at Shakespeare Martineau, said the fashion and accessories industry has been overwhelmed by new competition from online retailers in recent years, putting increased pressure on high street brands.
“These tough market conditions will by no means only be affecting Claire’s, and we may well see other retail giants struggle in the coming months”, he said.
Modella Capital said on Monday that it was putting Claire’s and TOFS into administration, putting 2,500 staff at risk of redundancy.
The investment firm, which owns the two retail chains, cited weak consumer confidence and continued cost inflation as key reasons for starting insolvency proceedings.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), has said the rising cost of living has created a challenging environment for retailers, so “it is little surprise to see some businesses falling into administration”.
“The situation could become worse if government policies add significantly to this burden in 2026”, she added.
Modella said tough retail conditions, including those from government policies, were causing British businesses like Claire’s to “suffer badly”.
The US private sector added slightly fewer jobs than expected last month as large employers held fire amid uncertainty over the economy.
Payroll operator ADP Research reported that US firms added 41,000 new staff in December, led by education and health services, leisure and hospitality. However they fell in professional services and manufacturing.
This was below analyst expectations of 50,000.
Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said:
The data is a forerunner to official jobs figures released on Friday, which will be the most reliable data released on the health of the American economy since the federal shutdown at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said:
A surge in post-Christmas home hunting activity has signalled an early start to the 2026 housing market, with Rightmove (RMV.L) recording its busiest ever Boxing Day for visits as buyers and sellers moved quickly after the festive lull.
In the five days after Christmas, enquiries sent to estate agents jumped by 67% compared with the five days before Christmas. Meanwhile, the number of new properties listed for sale more than doubled, up 143% over the same period.
Boxing Day has traditionally marked the start of a busier period for the housing market following what is typically the quietest time of year in December. Rightmove said this pattern appeared particularly pronounced this year as potential movers returned to searching and listing activity.
The increase in listings reflected sellers aiming to launch homes at a time when buyer interest was rising sharply. New buyer and seller activity was strongest in the South East, the East of England and London.
Smaller homes dominated new supply, with properties of zero to two bedrooms the most common type to be listed, a category typically targeted by first-time buyers.
Visits to Rightmove on Boxing Day 2025 were the highest on record, surpassing the previous peak set in 2024. Traffic to the platform almost doubled from Christmas Day to Boxing Day, rising by 93%, a sharper rebound than the 87% increase seen a year earlier.
Steve Pimblett, Rightmove’s chief data officer, said the figures pointed to a potentially strong start to the year ahead.
Iron ore hit the highest price since February, buoyed by the outlook for macro-economic support in China and pre-holiday restocking.
Futures rose for a fourth day, nearing $109 a ton in Singapore, Bloomberg reported. The People’s Bank of China said it would make use of multiple policy tools, including cuts to interest rates, in a flexible and efficient manner, according to a statement on Tuesday evening.
Prices were also supported by restocking before next month’s Lunar New Year break, according to Liz Gao, iron ore analyst at CRU.
“Supply is robust now, but there are risks of disruptions for iron ore in the next few weeks due to seasonal weather. So there is potential that prices could go even higher.”
Iron ore ended 2025 with a modest gain, despite concerns about rising production from top miners, as well as indications of slowing steel output in China. Among signs of ample supplies, port inventories in the largest importer of the commodity have risen to the highest since late 2024.
Still, many raw materials — including base metals — have posted strong gains at the start of 2026. Among them, copper has rallied to a record.
Iron ore gained as much as 2.1% to $108.90 a ton in Singapore, and traded at that price at 3:37 p.m. local time, while Dalian contracts ended more than 3% higher.
GameStop (GME) unveiled a compensation package for its boss Ryan Cohen on Wednesday, hinging on a turnaround that requires him to lift the struggling videogame retailer’s market value more than tenfold and sharply boost profits.
Shares of the company rose around 3% in premarket trading on the back of the news.
The company said Cohen will receive no guaranteed pay in the form of salary, cash bonuses or stock options under the package, making his compensation entirely “at-risk” of achieving the ambitious targets.
The award resembles the 10-year incentive plan approved for Elon Musk at Tesla, under which compensation was tied entirely to stock options that vest only if ambitious market capitalization and operating profit goals are achieved.
GameStop said Cohen’s package consists of stock options to purchase more than 171.5 million shares in GameStop at a price of $20.66 per share. The company now has a current market capitalization of $9.26bn.
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Gold prices slipped on Wednesday as investors took profits after the metal briefly touched its highest level in more than one week, while a firmer US dollar weighed on sentiment.
Gold futures (GC=F) fell 0.5% to $4,474.60 an ounce, while spot prices were little changed at $4,471.83 at the time of writing. Prices remain less than $100 below last month’s record high of $4,548.92.
Market moves were being driven more by positioning than fundamentals, according to Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
Prices are not being influenced “that much from a fundamental perspective, there’s a lot of speculation… price action has for the most part been skewed to the upside, but it’s showing two way volatility,” he said.
Rodda added that strength in the US dollar had also pressured prices. The currency hovered near its strongest level in more than two weeks, making dollar priced commodities more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
Read more: Should you invest in gold?
Investors are now looking ahead to US economic data later in the week, including the closely watched nonfarm payrolls report due on Friday. The figures are expected to play an important role in shaping expectations for Federal Reserve policy.
Markets are currently pricing in two further interest rate cuts by the Fed this year, a backdrop that has generally supported gold by lowering the opportunity cost of holding assets that do not offer a yield.
UK two-year gilt yields have fallen to their lowest level since August 2024, down 4 basis points to 3.661%.
It comes as a sign investors are anticipating cuts to UK interest rates from the Bank of England (BoE).
Money markets are currently pricing in one cut by June, and possibly a second by the end of 2026.
However, earlier this week Goldman Sachs predicted there will be three quarter-point rate cuts by next Christmas, which would bring Bank Rate down to 3%.
The UK’s construction sector continued to shrink in December, as housing, commercial and civil engineering activity suffered sharp falls.
Data provider S&P Global reported that activity across the construction sector, and new orders, both fell again last month.
The construction PMI index rose slightly to 40.1 in December, up from 39.4 in November, but still showing a contraction for the 12th month running. It remains well below the 50 mark, which separates expansion from contraction and marks a year of decline for the sector.
Housebuilding and commercial construction work both decreased at the fastest rate since May 2020, when the Covid-19 lockdown forced building sites to close. Meanwhile, civil engineering was the weakest-performing category of construction activity in December.
Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:
Eurozone inflation eased to 2.0% in December, matching market consensus and back to the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) target.
Joe Nellis, economic adviser at MHA, said price pressures were “normalising after several turbulent years”. He said:
Meanwhile, Diego Iscaro, Head of European Economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:
Here are the top FTSE risers and fallers this morning:
Learner drivers in England and Wales could face a minimum of up to six months between sitting their theory and practical tests, the BBC has revealed.
The government is set to unveil the measure, which will be subject to consultation, as part of its wider road safety strategy launched on Wednesday.
The strategy will include proposals for a lower drink-driving limit in England and Wales, to bring them in line with Scotland.
The BBC said the shake-up of driving laws is aimed at reducing the number of people killed or badly injured on Britain’s roads by 65% over the next decade, and by 70% for children under 16.
It comes as a fifth of all deaths or serious injuries from crashes involved a young car driver in 2024, according to official figures.
The government believes a minimum period between sitting the theory test and the practical test would help learner drivers develop their skills, including driving in different conditions.
The Department for Transport will consult on three or six months for the minimum learning period. It would include any informal learning they may do with parents or guardians as well as formal lessons with a driving instructor.
Former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said it would signal the “demise of a large part of Nato” if Donald Trump were to attack Greenland.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
When asked if he thinks the UK Government needs to go further in sticking up for Denmark and Greenland, Sir Ben said:
It comes as the White House said on Tuesday that using US military is ‘always an option’ for acquiring Greenland.
“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said:
Asian shares were mixed overnight as investors’ turned their attention to global interest rates and uncertainty caused by developments in Venezuela.
The Nikkei (^N225) fell 1.1% on the day in Japan after setting a fresh record a day earlier, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.9% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) eked out a 0.05% gain by the end of the session.
In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 0.6% on the day.
It came as Brent crude oil fell as much as 1.4% as US president Donald Trump said the US would take control of up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil and sell it at market prices.
On Tuesday, broad gains led by technology stocks pushed prices on Wall Street to more records. The gains mirror much of the action from the previous year, when big technology stocks often drove the market to a series of records.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) advanced 0.7%. The Dow Jones (^DJI) gained 1% on the day, touching a new record of 49,462 as investors continue to react to Nicolas Maduro’s removal from power in Venezuela and await a fresh set of data this week to shed light on the US economy.
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As of 10:46:23 GMT-5. Market open.
Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s moving markets and happening across the global economy.
Looking at the day ahead, data releases include the Euro Area flash CPI print for December, German unemployment for December, whilst in the US there’s the ISM services index for December, JOLTS job openings for November, and the ADP’s report of private payrolls for December. Otherwise, central bank speakers include the Fed’s Bowman and the ECB’s Pereira.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the agenda:
9.30am: UK construction PMI for December
10am: Eurozone December inflation flash reading
3pm: US JOLTS job openings stats for November
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