Wednesday, March 11

Stocks rise and pound hits one-month high as traders continue to digest budget announcement


The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) and European stocks were higher on Thursday as traders continue to digest the aftermath of Wednesday’s budget announcement. The pound (GBPUSD=X) traded as high as $1.3268 early this morning, before retreating again, hitting its highest since 29 October.

It comes amid relief that Rachel Reeves doubled her headroom to hit her fiscal rule for a balanced current budget in 2029-30, from £9.9bn to almost £22bn. This also pushed down UK borrowing costs yesterday.

Read more: The autumn budget explained in five charts

This is despite the chancellor putting up taxes by £26bn after vowing last year that she would not “come back for more” when raising taxes by £40bn. Labour’s manifesto also promised not to raise taxes on working people.

She admitted she was “asking working people to pay a little bit more” but insisted she had “kept that contribution to an absolute minimum,” blaming Donald Trump’s tariffs and former prime minister Liz Truss.

Andrew Wishart, economist at Berenberg, said: “Taking the chance offered by a helpful official forecast to avoid hard decisions has increased the chancellor’s and prime minister’s chance of political survival.”

“The fall in yields and strengthening of the pound is probably more due to the waning of political risk rather than any changes to official forecasts or the policy package.”

  • London’s benchmark index (^FTSE) was almost 0.1% higher in early trade.

  • Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) rose 0.4% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris headed 0.1% into the green.

  • The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was up 0.1%.

  • Wall Street is closed today for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday US stocks rallied as anticipation mounted about another Fed rate cut in two weeks’ time, with a further boost from solid data.

  • The pound was 0.1% down against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) at 1.3221, briefly touching a one-month high earlier in the morning.

Follow along for live updates throughout the day:

LIVE 3 updates

  • JPMorgan to build huge UK headquarters in Canary Wharf

    JPMorgan (JPM) is set to build a new 3 million square foot tower in the Canary ​Wharf financial ‌district in east London.

    The bank said the project would contribute almost £10bn to the local economy, including the cost of construction, and create 7,800 jobs. It will give its employees and clients “a first-class working environment” with views across the River Thames to central London.

    It comes as welcome news for ⁠Britain just ​months after ​JPMorgan completed its new global headquarters ‍in ⁠New York.

    Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chairman and CEO, pointed to the UK government’s “focus on economic growth” as a factor behind the decision. He said:

    Meanwhile, chancellor Rachel Reeves said the move was “a multi-billion pound vote of confidence in the UK economy.”

  • Asia and US overnight

    Stocks in Asia were higher overnight, with the Nikkei (^N225) leading the way and climbing 1.2% on the day in Japan, driven by tech, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) climbed 0.1% in Hong Kong. US diplomatic initiatives aimed at mitigating elevated tensions between Tokyo and Beijing also seem to have helped

    The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.3% up by the end of the session.

    In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 0.7% on the day, retracing some of its initial advances after the Bank of Korea’s decision to maintain its benchmark interest rate.

    The central bank opted to keep the rate at 2.5%, marking the fourth consecutive hold. It presented an optimistic economic outlook, revising its growth forecast for the current year up by 0.1 percentage point to 1% and upgrading its projection for the next year to 1.8% from 1.6%.

    While growth forecasts have seen a slight improvement, it notably remains below the central bank’s estimated potential growth rate of 2%

    Across the pond on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.7%, recording its biggest 4-day bounce since the US-China trade truce back in May. This came as anticipation mounted about another Fed rate cut in two weeks’ time, with a further boost from solid US data.

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.8% higher. The Dow Jones (^DJI) also gained 0.7%.

  • Coming up

    Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s moving markets and what’s happening across the global economy.

    To the day ahead it will be a quieter one with US markets closed for Thanksgiving. Otherwise, data releases from the Euro Area include the M3 money supply for October, and the European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator for November.

    From central banks, we’ll get the ECB’s account of their October decision, and hear from ECB Vice President de Guindos, the ECB’s Villeroy, and the BoE’s Greene.

    Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the agenda:

    • 9am: Resolution Foundation event: ‘what the budget means for the public, financial markets and the cost of living’

    • 10am: Eurozone economic sentiment index

    • 10:30am – 12:00pm: IFS to present its analysis of the budget

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