FTSE 100 Live: Stocks vacillating as CMC surges, Broadcom plunges Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock
FTSE 100 down 53 points to 10,297
Oil prices soften on Israel-Lebanon ceasefire
CMC Markets nears five-year high on results
10.21am: Broadcom provides evidence of overheated AI theme
Last night, Broadcom, the sixth largest company on the S&P 500, reported earnings where revenue hit a new record on the back of an AI chip surge, but its outlook seemed to disappoint, with the shares down 13% in afterhours trading.
The chip maker is on course for one of the biggest one-day sell-offs in terms of market value on record, he notes.
This provides evidence “in spades” of the AI theme being overheated, says AJ Bell market analyst Dan Coatsworth.
After a 220% surge over the past 12 months and 700%-plus since the start of 2023, Broadcom was of course trading at all-time highs at the start of a week that has also seen Anthropic file for an IPO and Alphabet unveil a record $85 billion fundraise.
“Broadcom is being punished for revenue guidance which beat consensus expectations but came in short of the high end of analysts’ estimates, showing just how high the bar has been raised for the business,” says Coatsworth.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan did not lift the $100 billion AI chip revenue forecast for 2027 he gave in March, which Coatsworth says “represented a failure to keep pace with runaway expectations”.
He concludes: “Broadcom may have emerged as a key player in the booming AI infrastructure market, with a particular expertise in the custom chips increasingly being used by the likes of Alphabet and Meta. However, just like its rival Nvidia, Broadcom is finding that meeting and even slightly beating forecasts is not enough when the market is holding it to such a high standard.”
9.57am: Construction output worsens
UK construction output last month fell at the fastest pace for six years, according to the S&P Global/CIPS construction PMI, which dropped to 38.2 in May from 39.7 in April well below the 40.5 expected.
The survey was collected between May 12 and 28.
“UK construction companies reported a steep downturn in business activity during May, with the speed of contraction accelerating to its fastest for six years,” says Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global.
Housebuilding was “especially subdued”, he says, with a “considerable softening” of commercial activity too.
“Anecdotal evidence suggested that economic uncertainty and rising inflation in the wake of the Middle East conflict had triggered the steepest drop in new work since the beginning of the pandemic. Elevated borrowing costs were also reported to have impacted market conditions.
“Fuel surcharges and rapid increases in prices for energy-intensive raw materials continued to be felt across the construction supply chain.
“Overall purchasing costs rose to the greatest extent since June 2022, while international shipping delays meant that suppliers’ delivery times lengthened for the third month running.”
Optimism was unsurprisingly dim, with industry confidence levels low but not as bad as it was ahead of last autumn’s Budget.
9.21am: FTSE oscillating
The FTSE 100 has been in vacillating form this morning, swinging to a 25-point gain and now to a deficit of 10 points at 10,322.
Oil and mining are weights, but there are a sprinkling of gains among other heavyweights.
Banks are diverging, with Asia focused HSBC and Stan Chart both down over 2%, while Lloyds and NatWest are up 1%, with Barclays flat.
The FTSE 250 is just above flat, led by CMC and Hg Capital Trust, where manager Hg unveiled plans to more than double its stake in the investment trust over time, arguing the current share price materially undervalues the portfolio and its AI-driven growth prospects.
Last night the results of the latest quarterly FTSE review were published, with three promotions to the top flight, with Aberdeen Group, Computacenter and Investec heading into the FTSE 100, while Berkeley Group, Mondi and Rightmove are heading the other way.
The changes take effect from 22 June.
Aberdeen returns to the blue-chip index after three years in the FTSE wilderness, while Investec left the index at the end of 2011.
Computacenter’s first promotion to the top division reflects investor affection for a company that quietly makes money.
The FTSE 250 will see a broader reshuffle, with Bloomsbury, GlobalData, Rosebank Industries and Seraphim Space among the arrivals, while Chrysalis Investments, Impax Environmental Markets and JPMorgan India Growth & Income are among those dropping out.
8.55am: CMC surges to 5yr high but analysts flag risks on outlook
On the FTSE 250, CMC Markets has surged 18% to its highest since the summer of 2021.
Analyst Julian Roberts at Jefferies said net operating income (NOI) was ahead of the City consensus at £393 million, up 15% YoY and 3% above expectations.
“However, costs were also well ahead, at £289 million, versus circa £250 million original guidance, bringing PBT down to £101 million versus £110 million consensus.”
He says the outlook from Peter Cruddas was “characteristically bullish”, with NOI expected to be £460-£480 million, and a list of major developments to come, so while consensus “may increase […] the market may be wary of the cost implications of this rapid development”.
Panmure Liberum’s Barun Singh says it was a “solid full-year”, but PBT was below his estimate, “with the shortfall largely explained by the higher variable remuneration and continued investment in a number of major strategic programmes”.
He also flagged that on the bullish outlook, “several of the initiatives underpinning that step-up remain in build phase”.
8.22am: SpaceX confirms IPO for next Friday
A filing from SpaceX has confirmed that Elon Musk’s rocket company is targeting an IPO valuation of roughly $1.77 trillion, as reports earlier in the week indicated.
The company said in an SEC filing that it plans to sell 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, raising just over $75 billion.
This would make SpaceX the seventh-largest company in the world by market cap, ahead of Tesla and Meta, with the IPO pipping Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut at a valuation of $1.7 trillion.
Musk, who holds about a 42% stake, will become the world’s first trillionaire if the shares begin trading as expected on Nasdaq exchange a week from tomorrow, 12 June.
8.14am: FTSE 100 searching for direction
The FTSE 100 seems to be searching for direction in initial trades, down a few, then up a bit, and now down 1 point at 10,331.
Sainsbury’s, Vodafone and LondonMetric are leading the fallers, as their shares go ex-dividend.
Polar Capital Tech Trust is down 2.1% after falls on Wall Street last night.
Miners and oilers are a big drag on the index, with Rio Tinto falling 1.5% and Shell 1.25%.
At the other end, the ever-volatile JD Sports is top of the risers, followed by Lion Finance, up 2.1%.
8am: Sorrell’s S4 on track
Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has put out an AGM statement, saying trading in the opening months of 2026 has been in line with expectations despite increasingly challenging market conditions, as the digital advertising and marketing group revealed plans to introduce a new 50% payout dividend policy.
Executive chairman Sorrell said clients remained cautious amid geopolitical uncertainty, tariff negotiations and continued pressure on marketing spending, particularly among technology companies, which account for almost half of group revenue.
The company expects like-for-like net revenue for 2026 to be within the current analyst consensus range of £632-663 million, representing a low single-digit decline from the previous year.
7.44am: CMC profits jump 20%
CMC Markets has reported a strong improvement in profit for the second half of the year and forecast further growth ahead as its institutional and business-to-business partnerships continued to expand.
In its first update since November, the trading platform operator posted preliminary results showing profit before tax of £101.3 million for the year to 31 March 2026, up 20% from a year earlier. This follows a 1% fall in first-half PBT.
The board proposed a final dividend of 8.3p per share, taking the full-year payout to 13.8p, up 21%.
Chief executive Peter (Lord) Cruddas called it “another year of exceptional delivery for CMC, against a second half defined by extreme volatility.”
He has discovered a new love of volatility, saying it “is often viewed as a tailwind for traditional D2C, or retail providers” but “CMC today operates a very different and diverse business model”, with performance significantly driven more by B2B and wholesale.
Cruddas says the next 12 months are “expected to be a defining period for the group”, with Westpac and ASB Bank expected to come online, continued rollout of the CMC ‘super app’, expansion of our neobank partnership (widely thought to be with Revolut) and momentum across investing and retail platforms.
7.28am: Today’s ex-divs
The FTSE 100 faces a drag of 3.49 points from today’s ex-dividend adjustments, led by Vodafone and Sainsbury’s.
Also trading ex-div are Marks and Spencer, LondonMetric Property and Sage Group.
7.16am: FTSE heading lower at open, despite Gulf developments
The FTSE 100 could well spend another day in red on Thursday, after sharp falls on Wall Street overnight, though oil prices have backed down a tad on reports that Israel and Lebanon have agreed a ceasefire.
London’s blue-chip benchmark is tipped to fall around 40 points at the open, extending losses from the 41 points given up the day before when the index closed at 10,332.30.
US stocks snapped their winning streak, with the Dow Jones falling 621 points or 1.2%, the Nasdaq shedding 0.9% and the S&P 500 ending 0.7% lower, all retreating from the new highs hit this week.
Asian markets are down this morning, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng both off around 1.5%, while China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped 0.5% and India’s Sensex was broadly flat.
Brent crude is down 1.1% at $96.75 a barrel.
Yesterday saw “a shift in sentiment” for stocks, says market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB. “However, the sell-off could be short-lived, as the oil price falls.
“Brent has dropped 0.6% this morning, after reports that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire, which gives hope that a resolution to the Iran conflict can be found.
“This has also been boosted by developments overnight in the US, the House of Representatives is seeking to block Trump from continuing the war in Iran. This still needs Senate approval, but the President also said that a resolution could be found this weekend.
“We have heard this before, the question now is whether the market will take Trump’s words at face value?”
In London company news, it’s mid- and small-cap results time, with updates from CMC Markets, Mitie, S4 Capital, Premier Miton, GCP Infrastructure and a few others.