UK Political Shift Meets Global Market Stagnation: Burnham–Macron Summit and Asset Class Weekly Review

In London this week, all eyes were on UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. UK Political Developments

Keir Starmer Resigns as MP: Former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on September 1 that he is stepping down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras. Following his departure as prime minister earlier this summer, Starmer stated he is leaving Parliament to focus on international affairs, defense, security, and tackling violence against women and girls. His exit triggers an upcoming by-election in his North London constituency.

PMQs Debut for Andy Burnham: Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his first appearance at the despatch box for Prime Minister's Questions following the end of the summer parliamentary recess. During the session, Burnham paid tribute to Starmer's public service and leadership in delivering Labour's 2024 election win.
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UK–France Bilateral Meeting: Prime Minister Burnham hosted French President Emmanuel Macron at 10 Downing Street on September 3. Discussions focused on joint efforts to deter illegal small boat crossings, defense cooperation regarding joint missile production for Ukraine, energy security, and opposition to expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Consumer Rights & Trade Protections: The government announced a review of consumer protection measures, introducing new regulations and a "Trusted Payments" scheme targeting the home improvement sector to tie consumer payments to project milestones.

Legislative Activity: Parliament considered several key measures as MPs returned, including proposals concerning the Sovereign Grant Bill to revise Royal Family funding, anti-SLAPP legislation to protect press freedom, and backbench motions on electoral reform.

UK Equity Benchmarks

The FTSE 100, which is very global, was slightly up, and the FTSE 250, which is thought of by some as the real UK economy, was down for the week. FTSE 100

Performance: Up roughly +0.4% across the week, closing at 10,831.09.

Key Drivers:

    Price action was generally range-bound/flat throughout the week, holding around the 10,800 level as traders absorbed global economic updates.

    The market saw intra-day swings following the U.S. August Non-Farm Payrolls report, which delivered a strong upside surprise (+162k jobs). The initial spike in bond yields and dollar strength led to quick intra-day chops across global markets, but the FTSE finished the week virtually unchanged on Friday.

    Commodity volatility, elevated oil prices ($94–$95 Brent crude), and domestic bond yield pressures remained primary macro influences.

FTSE 250

Performance: Ended the week down approximately -1.4%, closing at 24,584.71 (down from last week's close around 24,938.79).

Key Drivers:

    Domestic mid-caps experienced pressure earlier in the week amid ongoing rate/inflation expectations from the Bank of England.

    Quarterly Index Reshuffle: FTSE Russell confirmed the quarterly review rebalances:

        Promoted to FTSE 100: EasyJet (following its acquisition agreement with Apollo) and Ithaca Energy.

        Demoted to FTSE 250: Entain and Persimmon.

        Promoted into FTSE 250: Pinewood Technologies Group and Volex.

Global Commodities & Equities Commodities

Oil: Up for the week over geopolitics.

Precious Metals: Gold and silver both unchanged.

Equities

S&P 500: The world's benchmark stock index saw little change, with macroeconomic data in the labor market failing to budge it, and not a great deal on the micro side with corporate earnings reports. DELL failed to dictate the tech story, and Lululemon missed revenue with the stock down 18%.

Nasdaq Tech 100: Little changed in the technology sector.

European Indices: The German DAX and French CAC 40, major stock indices in Europe, were both down for the week.

Asian Indices: In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index was slightly down for the week. In Korea, the KOSPI stock index was slightly up, but on little volume.

MSCI Global Stock Index: Little changed.

Foreign Exchange & Crypto Markets Forex

Major Currencies: The dollar, euro, and pound showed little trend this week, with a muted reaction to U.S. labor market data on the macro top-down side.

Japanese Yen: In Japan, the yen was a sell-off compared to the dollar.

Crypto

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP mainly moved sideways for the week with little volume or hype.