Finance
FTSE 100 closes lower as Wall St mood sours
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 12, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 12, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
FTSE 100 fell 0.6% as Wall Street's AI concerns affected markets. Attention shifts to Bank of England's upcoming policy meeting with a potential rate cut.
Dec 12 (Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 fell on Friday, as a sell-off on Wall Street fuelled by AI angst spoiled the mood across European markets.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 dipped 0.6%, retreating from gains of as much as 0.6%. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index edged up 0.1%, also pulling back from early highs.
Both indexes recorded a second consecutive week of declines.
U.S. stocks tumbled as chipmaker Broadcom's latest results added to concerns about a potential AI bubble, dampening optimism stoked by the Federal Reserve's less hawkish signals on the path of interest rates in 2026. [.N]
British stocks were earlier buoyed by a surge in precious metal miners on the back of a rally in gold and silver prices.
The FTSE 350 index of precious metal miners jumped 5% to a record high before cutting gains. It closed up just 0.8%.
Attention now turns to the Bank of England monetary policy meeting next week, with markets pricing in a 90% chance of a 25 basis points rate cut following signs of a cooling labour market and inflation.
Data on Friday showed Britain's economy shrank unexpectedly in the three months to October, losing momentum in the fraught run-up to finance minister Rachel Reeves' budget, further supporting expectations for a rate cut.
Among stocks, InterContinental Hotels Group rose 2% after Jefferies upgraded the Holiday Inn owner to "buy" from "hold".
WH Smith fell 2.1% after the travel retailer delayed the publication of its preliminary annual results for the second time.
Card Factory plunged 27.4% after the greeting cards and gifts retailer warned of a drop in annual profit due to lower-than-expected UK store sales and expectations that weak high street footfall could persist over the festive weeks.
Harbour Energy rose 3.3% after the oil and gas producer said it had agreed to acquire all subsidiaries of Waldorf Energy Partners and Waldorf Production for $170 million.
(Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Alex Richardson)
The FTSE 100 is a stock market index that represents the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, based on market capitalization.
A rate cut refers to a reduction in the interest rate set by a central bank, which can stimulate economic activity by making borrowing cheaper.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power.
A sell-off occurs when a large number of investors sell their assets, often leading to a rapid decline in the price of those assets.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, responsible for issuing currency, managing monetary policy, and overseeing financial stability.
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