FTSE 100 muted and Wall Street climbs as investors monitor developments on tariffs and AI

That’s it from me. Head over to our US site for more market moving news.

Yahoo Finance UK’s Pedro Goncalves writes:

Bank of England (BoE) governor Andrew Bailey said it is possible he will support another interest rate cut at the March meeting, as policymakers weigh evidence that inflation is easing toward the central bank’s target.

Speaking before Parliament’s Treasury Committee, Bailey said he wanted additional confirmation before backing a reduction in borrowing costs.

“Well, we’ll see. I think at the moment I would say we’re still a little way off [from] the next meeting…. It is a genuinely open question at the moment,” he told MPs.

Read more here on Bailey’s comments in the Treasury committee session.

Danish pharmaceuticals giant Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B.CO) announced on Tuesday that it would cut the prices on its weight-loss treatments in the US from the start of next year.

Novo said in a statement that, effective 1 January 2027, it will lower the list price, or wholesale acquisition cost, of Wegovy injection 2.4 mg and tablets 25 mg, Ozempic injection 0.5 mg, 1 mg, and 2 mg, and Rybelsus tablets 7 mg or 14 mg, to $675.

The company said that this would represent reductions of approximately 50% and 35% for Wegovy and Ozempic, respectively, from the current list price.

Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares were down more than 3% in afternoon trading, while New York-listed shares fell by 2.8%.

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) confirmed on Tuesday that it had received a revised takeover offer from Paramount Skydance (PSKY) and said that it would review the new proposal.

In a statement, Warner Bros’ board said: “Following engagement with PSKY during the seven-day limited waiver period, we received a revised PSKY proposal to acquire WBD, which we are reviewing in consultation with our financial and legal advisors.

It added: “We will update our shareholders following the board’s review. The Netflix (NFLX) merger agreement remains in effect, and the board continues to recommend in favor of the Netflix transaction. WBD shareholders are advised not to take any action at this time with respect to the amended PSKY tender offer.”

Shares in Warner Bros were up 0.7% at the time of writing on Tuesday, while Paramount advanced by the same margin and Netflix was up nearly 1%.

FTSE 100 (^FTSE) banking stocks were in the red on Tuesday afternoon, following comments from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, suggesting that the financial world looks a lot like the heyday in the years ahead of the global financial crisis.

“Unfortunately, we did see this in ’05, ’06, ’07, almost the same thing,” Dimon said at the firm’s annual investor day in New York on Monday. “The rising tide lifting all boats, everyone was making a lot of money, people leveraging to the hilt. The sky was the limit.”

“My own view is people are getting a little comfortable that this is real — these high asset prices and high volumes and that we won’t have any kind of problem whatsoever. So we’re quite cautious about that,” Dimon added.

Major UK financial stocks trading lower on Tuesday afternoon included, Barclays (BARC.L), which was down nearly 2%, as well as Lloyds (LLOY.L) and NatWest (NWG.L), which were both almost 1% in the red. Standard Chartered (STAN.L) was down 1.7%, though the bank had reported full-year pre-tax profit which missed expectations on Tuesday morning.

Facebook-parent Meta (META) and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced multi-year agreement on Tuesday that will see the social media company purchase upward of six gigawatts’ worth of artificial intelligence (AI) chips as part of its massive AI build-out.

As part of the deal, announced Tuesday, AMD will issue Meta 160 million shares of common stock that will vest in a series of tranches if AMD hits certain milestones, the first of which will hit when AMD ships its first 1 gigawatt of chips.

Shares in AMD surged more than 8% on the back of the news on Tuesday, while Meta shares edged nearly 1% lower.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Meta’s AI arms race just shifted up another gear. The company has struck a huge deal with AMD to buy around $60bn of AI chips over 5 years, with an option to take a 10% equity stake in the chipmaker.

“Coming hot on the heels of Meta’s recent Nvidia agreement, the message couldn’t be clearer: AI infrastructure is priority number one. Meta is locking in supply, diversifying away from a single vendor, and doing whatever it takes to make sure its AI ambitions aren’t bottlenecked by chips.”

UK retail sales fell at a rapid pace in the year to February, according to a survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), published on Tuesday.

The survey’s measure of retail sales volumes showed a decline in the weighted balance to -43 from -17 in January.

The CBI’s latest distributive trades survey also showed that sales are expected to decline again next month, albeit at a slower rate.

Martin Sartorius, lead economist at the CBI, said: “Retail sales volumes fell at a sharp pace in the year to February, with some firms reporting that the wet weather discouraged shoppers from visiting stores.

“Soft demand conditions and elevated costs have continued to feed through to gloomy sentiment in the retail and broader distribution sector, prompting many firms to scale back investment plans and headcount. “

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday morning, as investors monitored tensions between the US and Iran.

Brent crude (BZ=F) futures declined 0.2% to $70.99 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) dipped 0.1% to $66.24 at the time of writing.

Wealth Club chief investment strategist Susannah Streeter said that Trump’s state of the union address on Tuesday evening could see the president “justify the military build‑up in the Gulf and potentially a fresh attack on Iran”.

The US and Iran are set to resume nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday.

Streeter said that the “threat of military action [is] still high”.

“The concern is that it would not just disrupt shipments from Iran, but oil supplies across the region,” she said.

Gold prices fell on Tuesday as investors booked profits after the precious metal hit a three-week high.

Gold futures (GC=F) were down 0.6% to $5,195.40 a troy ounce, while spot prices slipped 1% to $5,172.50 at the time of writing on Tuesday.

The fall in gold prices also came as the dollar strengthened, which tends to weigh on bullion given that the precious metal is typically priced in the US currency, so a firmer greenback can make gold more expensive for overseas buyers. The US dollar index (DX-Y.NYB), which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.2% at 97.86 at the time of writing.

Yahoo Finance UK’s Lucy Harley-McKeown writes:

US telehealth company Hims & Hers saw its stock futures fall more than 5.5% on Tuesday, selling off as its first-quarter guidance fell short of expectations. For the year-to-date the stock is down more than 50%.

Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk (NVO) filed a lawsuit seeking to block the company from selling generic versions of its weight loss drug, accusing Hims & Hers of infringing on its patents. Hims & Hers has argued that the legal challenge blocks options for affordable drugs.

In Q1, Hims & Hers reported an increase in sales as it expanded its range of treatment programmes and onboarded more subscription users.

Read more here on today’s trending tickers.

Our US team writes:

US stock futures ticked higher on Tuesday, attempting to stabilize after Wall Street gauges kicked off the final stretch of February with steep losses led by fears of AI disruption and tariff whiplash.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) rose 0.1%. Contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) climbed roughly 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) added 0.3%.

The cautious rebound follows a sharp sell-off on Monday as investors grappled with renewed concerns that rapid advances in AI could disrupt broad swaths of corporate America.

Read more on US market moves here.

Shares in Standard Chartered (STAN.L) dipped 0.7% on Tuesday morning, after the bank fell slightly short of profit expectations in its full-year results.

Standard Chartered posted underlying pre-tax profit of $7.9bn for 2025, which was up 16% on the previous year, but came in just below expectations of $7.98bn, according to estimates provided by the bank.

Underlying operating income for the year was $20.89bn, up 6% on 2024, and was also ahead of estimates for $20.93bn.

Standard Chartered proposed a final dividend of 49 cents per share, resulting in a full-year dividend of 61 cents per share, up 65%. The bank also announced a share buyback worth $1.5bn.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Standard Chartered’s results were untidy at first glance, with profits missing expectations as weaker global markets income and higher costs outweighed a steady lending performance. That said, shareholders got a pleasant surprise from stronger capital returns, with a bigger dividend and a new buyback announced.”

Chemicals company Croda International (CRDA.L) was the second biggest riser on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Tuesday morning, with shares up more than 4%.

In its full-year results, also released on Tuesday morning, Croda reported 6.6% growth in sales to £1.7bn on a constant currency basis in 2025. Pre-tax profits for the year came in at £276.2m, which was 8.4% higher than 2024.

Steve Foots, CEO of Croda International, said: “Our efforts to drive more consistent growth and transform the business are beginning to deliver results and whilst there is much more to do, our confidence in realising further improvements in performance is highlighted by the three-year financial framework we have set out today.”

For the year ahead, Croda said it expected to generate organic sales growth of 3% to 6% and to deliver adjusted operating profit in line with current market expectations at constant currency.

Medical products supplier ConvaTec Group (CTEC.L) was the biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Tuesday morning, with shares up more than 9% at the time of writing.

The jump in shares came after the company said it was increasing its medium-term organic revenue target, in preliminary results published on Tuesday. ConvaTec said it was upgrading its annual organic revenue growth target to 6% to 8% from 2027, up from a previously guided range of 5% to 7%.

ConvaTec reported revenue of $2.44bn for 2025, which was up 6.5% compared to the previous year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at 17.6 cents for the year, which was 16% higher than 2024.

Hello from London. Welcome to another busy day in markets, as Trump’s new 10% global tariffs come into effect.

Markets are also digesting results from chemical company Croda International (CRDA.L) and bank Standard Chartered (STAN.L).

Also on the agenda today is Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey’s appearance at a Treasury committee session, due to take place at 2:15pm GMT.

Stay tuned for further updates.