FT News Briefing

Germany’s pension crisis

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump said he was firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, shares in Ørsted plunged after the Trump administration halted one o...

Jerome Powell triggers market bets on a September rate cut

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jay Powell signalled a monetary policy shift during a high-profile Jackson Hole speech last week, and European investors are pouring money into new ai...

The return of ‘pump and dump’ stock scams

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

EU officials are accelerating plans for a digital euro, and the US Department of Justice has called for Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to be remov...

Can Target get its ‘swagger’ back?

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chinese regulators are pushing back against US AI chips, Target shares fell more than 6 per cent after the retail group picked an insider to be its ne...

What to expect from Jay Powell’s Jackson Hole speech

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US tech stocks sold off on Tuesday, and Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell will be between a rock and a hard place when he delivers his speech at the Ja...

Italian and French bonds meet in the middle

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump floated the prospect of US security guarantees for Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking for options after India ...

Zelenskyy goes back to the White House

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy today, just days after meeting Russian President Putin, and the UK’s solar ou...

The markets are shrugging off chaos

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska today, and Dubai is trying to hold on to its role as the financial centr...

Opec pops US shale’s balloon

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fears of a massive non-dom exodus from the UK have been allayed by initial tax data, and UK companies in China are being buoyed by diplomatic law. Plu...

Norway’s oil fund dumps Israeli companies

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The White House walks back expectations for Friday’s meeting between the US and Russian presidents, and Norway’s oil fund is pulling its money out...

Why the Mexican peso is on a tear

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

EU leaders will hold a call with US President Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the Mexican peso has emerged a...

Trump tries for a Ukraine peace deal

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

UK employers cut back hiring over labour and tax cost fears, and Ukraine and its European allies worry about US President Donald Trump’s summit...

A divided Bank of England

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump has nominated Stephen Miran to fill a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, and the Bank of England lower...

CoreWeave’s takeover deal hits a speedbump

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

European companies are falling behind US counterparts and CoreWeave’s takeover of Core Scientific is facing some pushback. Plus, Boston Consulting G...

Is Palantir’s stock too good to be true?

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump plans on imposing new sanctions on Russia unless there is a ceasefire in Ukraine, and Palantir’s skyrocketing stock is rai...

Australia wants its port back

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump wants to raise tariffs on India and the CEO of Deutsche Bank approved a controversial trade he was later tasked with probing...

Wall Street digests bitter economic data

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The FT’s US financial commentator joins to discuss how investors are responding to unsettling new economic data, and Germany’s biggest sports reta...

Swamp Notes: Trump’s case against Fed chair Powell

02 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend, we're sharing an episode from our fellow FT podcast, Swamp Notes. The US president is angry with the chair of the Federal Reserve over i...

Trump’s tariffs kick into higher gear

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Apple revenues jump on strong iPhone sales and rebound in China and Donald Trump has reimposed tariffs on dozens of trading partners. Plus, Samsung se...

Making sense of a wonky GDP reading

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meta’s shares jumped more than 10 per cent off the back of better than expected second-quarter earnings, and the Federal Reserve held rates steady d...

Concerns rise over starvation in Gaza

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The potential US-China trade war truce depends on US President Donald Trump’s approval, and a UN-backed food security group says a famine is unfoldi...

EU politicians bristle at US trade deal

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves are at odds, and EU politicians are grumbling over the bloc’s trade deal with...

China’s growing muscle at the UN

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The European Union struck a deal to limit the rate of US tariffs, and public companies are filling their coffers with cryptocurrencies. Plus, the shar...

Return of the stonk

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump is set to visit the UK and Krispy Kreme and GoPro stocks rise after becoming meme stocks. Plus, the ECB keeps rates at 2% an...

Private equity recycles assets

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla’s second-quarter profits fell 23 per cent as sales of its electric vehicles continued to slide, private equity firms made record use of a cont...

Big Pharma’s China gamble

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US House Speaker Mike Johnson sent home Congress members early to avoid a vote on releasing files on Jeffery Epstein, Nigeria’s recalculated GDP ref...

What deregulation means for the UK economy

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

JPMorgan Chase explores lending against cryptocurrency, and the UK will have to pay in order to join the EU’s defence fund. Plus, UK chancellor Rach...

Trump’s $50bn tariff haul

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Japan’s ruling coalition lost its majority in the country’s upper house of parliament, and the European Union is trying to break its dependency on...

Is Ukraine sliding into authoritarianism?

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accused of authoritarianism after favoring loyalists in anti-corruption raids, and the Meta board settles a...

US investment banking is so back

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump asked lawmakers whether he should fire Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, and Wall Street saw a surprise comeback in investment banking fe...

Why the UK kept an Afghan immigration scheme secret

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump sealed a trade deal with Indonesia and the UK had a secret plan to immigrate Afghans to Britain after a data leak. Plus, tar...

Washington weighs in on crypto

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The EU proposes to shift its budget to send billions to eastern European countries, and bitcoin hits a record high as US lawmakers are about to vote o...

US investment banking expected to stay in the doldrums

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The EU has put trade retaliations against the US on hold, and US investment banking is set to extend its losing streak. Plus, the FT’s Eleni Varvits...

Big Pharma markets left on a ‘patent cliff’-hanger

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

India is set to reach a record year in initial public offerings and Big Pharma is facing a wave of patent expiration dates. Plus, Meta goes to trial o...

Global copper market weighs Trump tariff threat

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The UK and France have pledged for the first time to co-ordinate the use of their nuclear weapons, and the copper markets are reeling from US Presiden...

BCG tries to limit Gaza work fallout

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

EU negotiators are closing in on a trade deal with Donald Trump that would cement higher tariffs than those granted to the UK, and Boston Consulting G...

Liechtenstein's zombie-trust apocalypse

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump extended tariff deadlines, and Liechtenstein’s trust industry is in a crisis spurred by American sanctions against Ru...

US stocks: rally or overcorrection?

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington DC today to discuss a Gaza ceasefire proposal with US President Donald Trump, and US stock...

The cost of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump has secured passage of his flagship tax and spending legislation and the US jobs market exceeded expectations last month. Plus, the futur...

The mad dash for trade deals

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

European CEOs are lobbying against AI regulations, and trade officials are rushing to make deals before US President Donald Trump’s tariffs take eff...

Hong Kong’s bull run leaves China in the dust

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The UK government passed its welfare reform bill after making concessions, and Hong Kong’s stocks are beating out mainland China’s. Plus, Eurozone...

Rise of the neobank

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two of the biggest oil companies in the Middle East scale down their acquisition sprees, and Wall Street’s comeback has dramatically narrowed the ga...

US banks are hungry for deals

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump administration is paving the way for more US bank mergers, and China’s online retail giants are losing some key customers. Plus, the race ...

Labour MPs rebel against UK welfare reform

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Some members of the UK's parliament fight back against proposed welfare cuts, and early intelligence suggests Iran’s uranium stockpile is still inta...

Why markets are unfazed by the Middle East conflict

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nato members decided on increased defence spending, the Federal Reserve is planning on cutting capital requirements for America’s biggest banks, and...

Iran's path forward

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US stocks almost hit record highs amid possible de-escalation in the Middle East, and Johns Hopkins University professor Vali Nasr analyses Iran’s f...

Will the wheels come off Nato?

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US president Donald Trump has said Israel and Iran have agreed a ceasefire, shifting priorities in the US are putting pressure on Nato members in Euro...

The US targets Iran’s nuclear programme

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The US is now using force to try to eliminate Iran’s nuclear programme, and new tariffs on US household goods take effect. Plus, the chief executive...

EU pushes a UK-style trade deal with the US

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s war-time economy is slowing down, and the EU is negotiating a trade deal with the US to keep some tariffs in place. Plus, the Bank of Engla...

The Fed cuts US economic outlook

19 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Reserve cut its outlook for the US economy on Wednesday, and in the UK, inflation remains higher than ideal. Plus, Big Tech companies are ...

Trump demands that Iran surrender

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump demands unconditional surrender from Iran on social media, and the Iran-Israel conflict causes Trump to leave the G7 summit ...

What Trump’s golden share means for the Nippon deal

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tensions rise as the EU refuses trade talks with China before next month’s leaders summit, and Airbus announced $10bn of orders at the Paris Air Sho...

Inside Iran’s ‘impenetrable’ nuclear bunker

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel may not have big enough bombs to take down Iran’s most secure nuclear facility, and Nippon Steel’s bid to take over US Steel is finally mov...

Hot Money: Agent of Chaos - Ep. 1, The Bribe

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we're bringing you the first episode from the new season of Hot Money. On Hot Money: Agent of Chaos, reporter Sam Jones investigates Wirecard’...

Southern European bond markets make a comeback

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel has launched a strike against Iran, Argentina’s month-on-month inflation rate has fallen below 2 per cent, and Italian, Spanish and Greek sov...

Europe’s game plan for handling Trump at G7

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Pentagon has launched a review of the 2021 Aukus submarine deal with the UK and Australia, Donald Trump has said the US and China’s deal to rest...

Winners and losers of UK spending review

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The FT’s George Parker explains the winners and losers in UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review, the UK imposed the first western sanctions...

Trump cracks down on Los Angeles protests

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The head of the operator of the Panama Canal has warned that a $23bn global ports deal could put the waterway’s neutrality mandate at risk, Donald T...

Who gets to be Italian?

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Syria is preparing to rejoin the international banking system, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government is trying to prevent...

Swamp Notes: Trump’s big play to save steel production

07 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on steel to 50 per cent this week. He’s also allowing Japan’s Nippon to buy the US Steel Corporation. Th...

Trump and Xi break the ice

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping agreed to launch a new round of high-level trade talks, the European Central Bank cut intere...

Bulgaria moves into the Eurozone

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Apple’s rollout of artificial intelligence services in China with Alibaba is being held up, Wells Fargo faces an uphill battle to catch up with its ...

Mexico’s new supreme court

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof resigned after far-right leader Geert Wilders walked out of his coalition government, Mexico’s new supreme court is...

Trump’s push to privatise Fannie and Freddie

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk’s xAI is launching a $300mn share sale that values the group at $113bn, and China’s property sector woes are compounded by tariff worrie...

South Korea plots a post-coup future

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Private equity dealmaking around the world slowed down in the second quarter of 2025, and South Korea holds elections on Tuesday after months of polit...

Swamp Notes: Do Republicans still care about debt?

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Republicans are often known as the party of fiscal responsibility. This week, Swamp Notes unravels the US House of Representatives’ “big, beautifu...

Trump’s tariffs in legal limbo

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The White House is fighting court rulings that US President Donald Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariff scheme is illegal, and a former Goldman Sachs...

The challenge to Delaware’s corporate dominance

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A US court invalidated President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff scheme yesterday. Nvidia reported a nearly 70 per cent surge in quarterl...

Rio Tinto’s surprise CEO hunt

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US stocks jumped yesterday after President Donald Trump said trade talks with the EU were headed in a "positive" direction, and McKinsey cut 10 p...

How Ukraine fell victim to fake arms deals

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 kicked off a massive arms procurement race for Kyiv. Officials looked just about everywhere for weap...

Behind the Money: GE Vernova tries to shake its parent’s problems

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we're bringing you an episode from our fellow FT podcast, Behind the Money. Massive conglomerates used to define corporate best practice. Think...

Swamp Notes: Trump’s next 100 days

24 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Swamp Notes goes to London for a live recording. Katie Martin, host of the Unhedged podcast, and Chris Giles, author of the FT’s Central ...

The economic impact of Trump’s budget bill

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Republicans in the US House of Representatives narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s major budget bill on Thursday, and BYD has sold more electri...

Will Germany ban the far-right AfD?

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Telegram leapt to a $540mn profit last year despite the ongoing legal threat to its leadership, yields on the longest-dated Japanese government bonds ...

CATL’s IPO pops in Hong Kong

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

European and Asian investors have pumped record sums into global equity funds that exclude the US market, and shares in Chinese battery maker CATL sur...

A warning shot to the Treasuries market

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The US may be stepping back from its role as mediator in the war in Ukraine, and US long-term borrowing costs rose to their highest level since late 2...

Trump administration to roll back banking rules

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The UK is holding its first summit with the European Union since Brexit, and US authorities are preparing to announce one of the biggest cuts in banks...

Swamp Notes: Trump’s tilt to the left

17 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Within the space of one week, US President Donald Trump endorsed tax increases for America’s top earners and promised to slash drug prices by up to ...

Can Bill Ackman create a Berkshire Hathaway rival?

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Japan has signalled it is prepared to hold out for a better deal with US President Donald Trump over trade tariffs, and investor Bill Ackman is trying...

Turkey after the PKK

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

CoreWeave reported a 420% rise in revenue in its first quarter as a listed company and the furious rally in US assets has caught big investors off gua...

UnitedHealth’s big shake-up

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The White House unveiled what it says is $600bn worth of defence and artificial intelligence deals with Saudi Arabia, UnitedHealth Group shares sink t...

A sigh of relief on US-China tariffs

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Global stocks surged after the US and China slashed tariffs for 90 days, and Brussels is preparing to use capital controls and tariffs against Russia....

Are investors starting to prefer Europe over the US?

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US officials say they made “substantial progress” on trade talks with China, and trade optimism has driven German stocks to record highs. Plus, US...

Swamp Notes: Trump takes on higher ed

10 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Description: US President Donald Trump is in an ongoing standoff with America’s top universities. Harvard lost $2.3bn in federal funding after it re...

The US-UK trade deal

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The US and the UK agreed to a trade deal, and the Bank of England cut interest rates by a quarter point. Plus, we hear from an FTC commissioner who wa...

Conflict puts Pakistan’s economy at risk

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The US scraps rule that aimed to limit exports of artificial intelligence chips, Pakistan vowed to retaliate after India launched air strikes against ...

A rough start for German Chancellor Merz

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

India said it had carried out “precision strikes” on “terrorist infrastructure” at nine sites in Pakistan, Friederich Merz suffered a stinging...

US stocks make full recovery

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

OpenAI will remain under the control of the group’s non-profit arm, US stocks have wiped out the steep losses that followed US President Donald Trum...

Berkshire after Buffett

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world’s most famous investor says he plans to step down after six decades leading Berkshire Hathaway, and Chinese exporters are turning to third...

Swamp Notes: The conservative view on tariffs now

03 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has garnered a lot of criticism since he enacted his trade war. But there are people who still defend the tariffs, including...

Australia’s voters go to the polls

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon warned of the impact of Donald Trump’s global trade war and issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the second quarter, and Australians head...

Honey, I shrunk the economy

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft posted better than expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Spain is trying to figure out what caused a massive power outage, and the Conse...

Japanese investors hope for a corporate shake-up

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump unveiled more tariff relief for some carmakers, and shares in a number of companies surged in Tokyo after a plan for carmaker Toyota Moto...

Big oil braces for a rough year

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The oil industry is bracing for its worst year since the pandemic, and Spain and Portugal are reeling from a massive power outage. Plus, the FT’s Em...

The elusive Ukraine peace deal

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Canadians will head to the polls Monday to pick a prime minister, and a new US proposal to end the War in Ukraine would allow Russia to keep some of t...

Swamp Notes: Trump’s ‘you break it, you buy it’ moment

26 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Just a few weeks ago, US President Donald Trump was ready to levy tariffs on basically every nation. Today, many of those tariffs have been paused or ...

US tariffs bite Chinese industry

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, factories in China have begun slowing production and furloughi...

Bessent takes aim at the IMF

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen will on Thursday finalise plans for a new defence pact, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has accused the ...

BP’s race to cut costs

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla’s first-quarter adjusted profits dropped 39 per cent and the IMF has downgraded outlooks for G7 nations and big economies such as China and In...

The Catholic Church after Pope Francis

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wall Street stocks dropped as President Donald Trump attacked Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, Pope Francis passed away on Monday after leading the C...