Economy news

• ‘Government bonds are a buy’

  03-10-2026 09:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  The relentless rise in government bond yields – the cost of countries’ borrowing and the pressure that puts on their finances – has become headline news. A crisis in which governments will be forced to slash public spending to reduce their deficits and stop the relentless rise in ratios of government debt to GDP is widely predicted. But it is rare for crises to be widely predicted, and, if they are, they never unfold as expected. In the popular narrative, “the bond vigila
  
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• Saudi Aramco chief warns world’s oil stockpiles are ‘scarily thin’

  05-10-2026 10:21 via ft.com
  Amin Nasser says inventories depleted by Middle East conflict could take up to two years to rebuild
  
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• The MoneyWeek ETF portfolio update – October 2026

  05-10-2026 09:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  We last updated the MoneyWeek ETF portfolio in July, when we added one new position, bringing in WisdomTree True Emerging Markets (LSE: WEMP) to balance the growing technology tilt in our long-standing iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets (LSE: EMIM) position.We now have 15% in emerging markets, which sounds high – but the Korea and Taiwan element (which is around 50% of EMIM) is now a play on the AI investment cycle to such an extent that it no longer seems to make sense to think of them as
  
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• Euro slides to 17-month low against dollar

  05-10-2026 08:38 via ft.com
  High energy prices and concerns over France’s public finances add to pressure on the single currency
  
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• BT buys struggling rival TalkTalk out of administration

  05-10-2026 08:36 via ft.com
  Deal will result in estimated £400mn cash hit for UK’s broadband leader and wipe out TalkTalk’s debts
  
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• Stocks to profit from strategic materials

  05-10-2026 08:30 via moneyweek.com
  
  Our fund, JSS Sustainable Equity – Strategic Materials, invests across the whole value chain for strategic materials. Around 70% to 80% is invested in upstream mining companies. The remainder goes to recyclers, mining equipment manufacturers, battery producers and advanced materials companies. These businesses benefit from the same structural trends, but their earnings often swing less than those of miners.I score every commodity each month on five factors: the marginal cost of production,
  
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• Self-employed? Reasons why you should pay into a SIPP

  05-10-2026 08:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  Just 4% of fully self-employed people currently save into a private pension, according to figures from the Pensions Commission, the inquiry set up by the government to investigate the state of the UK population’s retirement planning.One problem is that self-employed people sit outside the auto-enrolment system, under which all employers must offer their staff access to a pension scheme and sign them up for it unless they explicitly opt out. This also means self-employed people miss out on
  
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• The jobs market is still fine

  05-10-2026 07:30 via ft.com
  But the stock market is losing a lot of weight
  
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• BT closes in on deal for embattled TalkTalk

  05-10-2026 07:11 via ft.com
  Takeover would hand another 1.6mn broadband customers to UK market leader
  
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• FirstFT: US withdraws bombers from UK base

  05-10-2026 06:33 via ft.com
  Also in today’s newsletter: global dealmaking falls and UK banks to press Healey
  
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• Why a booming economy is not helping Trump

  05-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Anxiety about AI and affordability has turned his populist party into a popular target
  
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• Banks will lobby Healey for capital rules cut, says senior MP

  05-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Chair of the Treasury select committee says chancellor cannot ignore global shift to lower capital requirements
  
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• Election season starts with possibly the most contentious result

  04-10-2026 19:15 via ft.com
  Nobel Peace Prize announced, and another moment of British by-election jeopardy
  
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• BT weighs improved TalkTalk offer after initial approach rejected

  04-10-2026 13:03 via ft.com
  Telecoms group seeks deal within days for debt-laden broadband provider
  
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• What can revive the battered government bond market?

  04-10-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  Market Questions is the FT’s guide to the week ahead
  
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• In defence of big business

  04-10-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  Despite the lionisation of small companies, prosperity hinges on a handful of large firms
  
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• Britain’s Budget needs to tame spending and boost growth

  04-10-2026 12:00 via ft.com
  Chancellor Healey can still make a low-key fiscal event a constructive one
  
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• Tories vow to end £100,000 childcare trap but keep pensions triple lock

  04-10-2026 11:33 via ft.com
  Kemi Badenoch says current threshold for free hours, introduced by previous Conservative government, punishes parents for working more
  
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• US to receive potash shipment from Belarus as relations thaw

  04-10-2026 11:00 via ft.com
  Washington has begun to ease sanctions on Minsk in exchange for the release of political prisoners
  
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• How Dutch start-up ASML rose to rule the world

  04-10-2026 10:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  ASML (Amsterdam: ASML) is the only commercial supplier of EUV lithography systems – machines that sit at the heart of the modern semiconductor industry. An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system is roughly the size of a double-decker bus, weighs roughly 180 tonnes and costs more than €180 million. It fires lasers at tens of thousands of microscopic droplets of molten tin every second, creating a plasma that emits light at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres. That light is used to pr
  
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• Personal Assets Trust is being outstripped by inflation – can it recover?

  04-10-2026 09:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  With Personal Assets Trust (LSE: PNL), Capital Gearing (LSE: CGT) and Ruffer (LSE: RICA) all losing value after inflation, many investors who turned to wealth preservation trusts over the past five years will have been disappointed.In that time, UK inflation – as defined by the consumer price index (CPI) – has averaged 5% per year, or 27.5%. Meanwhile, Personal Assets is up 20.8% on a net asset value (NAV) basis to the end of August or 3.85% per year. Ruffer has gained 20% (3.7% per
  
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• Monet paintings fuel hopes for a bumper autumn sale season

  04-10-2026 08:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  Art market watchers are hoping that Claude Monetwill fuel a recovery in sales in this year's important autumn auction season. The French painter, best known for his late-19th-century Impressionist works, died 100 years ago this December. To mark the occasion, a number of his paintings are appearing at auction in Paris, the city where Monet was born in 1840.Fittingly, Sotheby's is focusing on Monet's late career, when the artist was working on a painting called Iris in his famously colourful gard
  
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• Labour grapples with the Deliveroo rider question

  04-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds proposes that rules place less emphasis on whether workers can appoint a substitute
  
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• Are Deliveroo riders really self-employed? Labour wants to change the test

  04-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds proposes that rules place less emphasis on whether workers can appoint a substitute
  
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• Tories vow to scrap £100,000 ‘tax trap’ for UK’s higher earners

  03-10-2026 23:00 via ft.com
  Badenoch says current threshold, introduced by previous Conservative government, punishes parents for working more
  
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• Tories vow to scrap £100,000 childcare trap for UK’s higher earners

  03-10-2026 23:00 via ft.com
  Badenoch says current threshold, introduced by previous Conservative government, punishes parents for working more
  
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• Temu’s UK sales more than double to $171mn

  03-10-2026 15:54 via ft.com
  Chinese ecommerce company has been exploiting tax loophole that exempts small parcels from customs duty
  
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• The town where 94% voted for Lula — and some now waver

  03-10-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  Despite his hallowed status, some voters are growing disaffected with Brazil’s president in Guaribas, the cradle of his flagship Bolsa Família welfare programme
  
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• China launches anti-dumping probe into European chemical exports

  03-10-2026 12:16 via ft.com
  Latest tit-for-tat move follows three similar investigations launched by the EU last week
  
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• What’s driving the global bond sell-off?

  03-10-2026 11:30 via ft.com
  Looking at the most cited factors reveals a mixed picture
  
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