In London this week Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his first major international trip to Kyiv. Attending a "Coalition of the Willing" summit alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the UK announced it would share classified technical data for British components in long-range SCALP missiles to allow Ukraine to assemble weapons domestically, while urging allies to increase air defence support ahead of winter.
Major Planning & Housing Devolution: The government unveiled expanded powers for regional mayors outside London, granting them "call-in" authority to directly greenlight major housing and commercial developments (projects over 150 homes or 30m in height) to bypass council delays and accelerate local growth.
Nepal Border Disaster Response: Downing Street issued an emergency statement following the severe glacial collapse and flash flooding along the Nepal-Tibetan border. Government agencies confirmed active coordination to assist affected British tourists and trekkers stranded in the region.
Civil Society & Electoral Policy Drive: Ministers outlined new details under the Representation of the People Bill—including advancing votes for 16- and 17-year-olds—alongside launching a national autumn initiative focused on ending rough sleeping.
speculation over geopolitics with RUSSIA is still on going .
The FTSE Ended the week practically flat (up 0.3% on Friday to close at 10,824.26). Gains earlier in the week were erased by midweek pullbacks in energy and banking stocks ending the week little changed
Key Drivers:
Central Bank Commentary: Markets digested hawkish signals from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole address.
Corporate Earnings & Reshuffle Risks: Tech-exposed and analytical shares like Computacenter and Relx saw gains, while traditional names faced selling pressure. Relegation risks emerged for Persimmon and Entain ahead of the upcoming quarterly index reshuffle.
Macro Sentiment: Easing energy prices (Brent crude around $89/barrel) pressured major oil heavyweights, but improving domestic economic sentiment—highlighted by the Lloyds Business Barometer reaching its highest level since March—provided underlying support.
FTSE 250 Summary
Weekly Performance: Outperformed the blue-chip index, gaining nearly 1% for the week (up 0.2% on Friday to close at 24,938.79).
Key Drivers:
Retail & Leisure Surges: Mid-cap stocks were boosted by strong consumer and retail updates. Halfords surged over 11% after raising full-year profit guidance on strong summer trading.
BoE Interest Rate Outlook: Investors continue to pare back expectations for Bank of England rate hikes this year, creating a more favorable tailwind for domestic, consumer-facing mid-cap equities.
commodities oil like a lot off things this week could not seem to make its mind up looking sideways gold down for the week and silver following it
equities s&p 500 not much changed this week with a tug of war between the micro and macro story with earnings from technology corporate heavyweight nvidia bringing optimism but talks off fed rate hikes on the table pulling that bullishness back . NASDAQ little changed also German dax stock index up this week yet French cac 40 stock index down so a mixed picture in western Europe over in Asia the NIKKie 225 in Tokyo little changed while in Korea the tech semi concentrated stock index the kospi seen much movement then ending the week down msci global stock index unchanged for the week
Forex usd & dxy ended the week up on things looking like interest rate hikes from the US central bank respectively the EUR/usd the worlds risk gauge came down for the week and the great British pound GBP also Japanese yen jpy up for the week
crypto after last week with btc and major alt coins coming up for the week crypto flat with bitcoin unchanged with Ethereum slightly down and ripples xrp down nearly 10 %