FTSE 100 and S&P 500 muted as investors eye US-Iran peace talks

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A new earnings season kicks off in the week ahead, with results due out from JPMorgan (JPM) on Tuesday, along with fellow US banks Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C), BlackRock (BLK). That’s followed by earnings from Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) on Wednesday.

AJ Bell head of markets Dan Coatsworth and head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said: “JPMorgan is among several of the big American banks to report earnings next week but as the biggest of the lot, its numbers and any accompanying comments from its CEO Jamie Dimon are likely to be the most closely monitored.”

In addition to major US banks, streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) will report first-quarter results on Thursday.

The chip sector will also be in focus next week, with results due out from ASML (ASML.AS) and TSMC (2330.TW) on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

In the UK, housebuilder Barratt Redrow (BTRW.L) is slated to report on Wednesday, while supermarket Tesco (TSCO.L) is due to release its full-year results on Thursday.

Shares in CoreWeave (CRWV) rose 5% on Friday, after the cloud infrastructure firm announced a multi-year deal with artificial intelligence (AI) research and development company Anthropic.

In a statement, CoreWeave said that the deal would support the development and deployment of Anthropic’s Claude family of AI models.

Under the agreement, the company said that Anthropic would use CoreWeave’s cloud platform to run workloads at production scale.

The news came a day after CoreWeave and Facebook-parent Meta (META) announced a $21bn expanded AI infrastructure agreement.

US markets were mixed on Friday afternoon, shortly after the opening bell in New York.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered around the flatline early in the trading session on Wall Street, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was up 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) declined 0.4%.

The rate of US inflation jumped in March, data released on Friday showed, as the Iran war drove spike in oil and gas prices.

The US consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.9% on the month and 3.3% year-on-year, up from 2.4% in February.

The increase was led by a 10.9% jump in energy prices over the month, with gasoline soaring 21.2% and fuel oil up 30.7%.

Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot, said: “While oil prices have tumbled since the news of the ceasefire broke, they remain considerably elevated compared to pre-war levels and they’ll likely stay there for some time yet – even if a resolution is found relatively swiftly.”

“At last month’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision, Jerome Powell said the central bank would be unlikely to need to raise rates in response given oil price moves and the pressure they can add tends to be temporary,” he said. “However, the sheer scale of the price shock this time around, alongside the uncertainty over the level of damage done to energy infrastructure and when supply routes will fully reopen, mean the Fed cannot dismiss it entirely.”

Nevertheless, Carter said that the Fed is widely expected to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting later this month, “as it continues to sit in ‘wait and see’ mode, but all eyes will be on whether there is any indication of a change in its stance or if it will continue to bide its time”.

Checking in on how US stock futures are performing ahead of the market open in New York – contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) were steady at the time of writing, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) edged 0.1% higher.

Gold prices fell on Friday, ahead of the latest US inflation reading, due out before the market open in New York.

The US consumer price index (CPI) reading for March is due out at 8:30am ET and is expected to show some of the impact of the Iran war, which driven a spike in oil and gas prices as a result of disruption to flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

Concerns about higher inflation have tempered expectations of further interest rate cuts this year, given this data is closely watched by central banks. The prospect of higher interest rates remaining elevated tends to the appeal of investing in gold, as a non-yielding asset.

Gold futures (GC=F) slipped 0.8% to $4,780 per ounce at the time of writing, while spot gold dipped 0.2% to $4,758.70 an ounce.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Britzman said that gold “has not acted as the store of wealth or shock absorber that many might have expected during the recent Middle East tensions.”

“That is largely because interest rate expectations have been the bigger driver of price action, outweighing the typical risk-off demand,” he said.

Back in the UK, student accomodation developer Unite Group (UTG.L) said that its hedging strategy for utility costs meant it is “well protected in the near-term” from the impact of recent increases in energy prices since the start of conflict in the Middle East.

In a trading update, published Friday, Unite said that 74% of beds were now reserved for the 2026/27 academic year.

The company said its sales progress for the 2026/27 academic year remained in line with guidance provided in its preliminary results for an outturn at the lower end of 93% to 96% occupancy and 2% to 3% rental growth.

In addition, Unite said it was on track to deliver guidance of £300m to £400m of asset disposals in 2026.

Mark Crouch, market analyst for eToro, said: “Unite Group PLC’s update is unlikely to excite investors in the near term. Reservations are tracking slightly behind last year at 74%, with occupancy and rental growth guided to the bottom end, hardly the momentum the market had been hoping for.”

Shares in FTSE 250-listed (^FTMC) firm were up just over 1% at the time of writing on Friday.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW, TSM) said revenue had risen 35.1% in the first quarter to 1.13 trillion new Taiwan dollars (£26.57bn).

The company said revenue for March came in at approximately NT$415.19 billion, up 30.7% from February and 45.2% higher than the same month last year.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Britzman said: “There may be plenty of noise elsewhere in the world, but the AI buildout shows little sign of slowing, with demand for AI hardware as strong as ever.

“Investors need only look at soaring GPU rental prices, tightening availability, comments from cloud CEOs, and now a strong set of sales from TSMC for confirmation.”

TSMC’s US-listed shares climbed nearly 2% in pre-market trading on Friday morning.

On the UK’s FTSE 250 (^FTMC), shares in AO World (AO.L) rose 4% in early trading, after the online electricals retailer said it expected pre-tax profits to be at the “top end” of guidance.

In a trading update on Friday, AO said total group revenue is expected to have increased by around 11% in its 2026 fiscal year.

The company said adjusted profit before tax was expected to be in line with previously upgraded guidance, anticipating that it would be at the top end of a range of £45m to £50m.

In addition, AO said that it had hedging arrangements in place ahead of the recent geopolitical developments, covering approximately 80% of its forecast fuel usage and 100% of electricity usage, which cover the full 2027 financial year trading period.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: “Four years since retreating from Germany with its tail between its legs, electricals retailer AO is firmly back in growth mode thanks to robust UK trading.

“Importantly, profits are growing ahead of sales which implies it is running a tight ship and coping with material cost pressures.”

Oil prices jumped on Friday morning, amid concerns over the US-Iran ceasefire. Brent crude futures (BZ=F) were up 1.5% to $97.38 a barrel at the time of writing, while West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) advanced 1.6% to $99.45.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz remains the key sticking point, with president Trump warning Iran against imposing transit fees on vessels moving through the crucial shipping lane – a concern that has also been echoed by the UAE.”

“Shipowners are still waiting for clearer guidance on access, leaving one of the world’s most important energy arteries largely closed to traffic,” he said. “Until it reopens, oil prices are unlikely to return to more stable levels, keeping inflation worries alive for investors.”

“Getting the waterway flowing again will be a clear priority for the White House, which, despite some strongly worded social media posts, doesn’t seem to have the leverage needed to force a full reopening,” Britzman added.

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