Key events
A quick check in on stock markets:
European stock markets are trading higher, with the FTSE 100 up 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 up 0.77% and Germany’s DAX up 1.07%.
US futures are pointing to a strong start for Wall Street, with Dow futures up 0.17%, S&P futures up 0.4%, Nasdaq up 0.81%.
In London, the FTSE 100 is up despite a 5.4% drop in Airtel Africa shares, which started conditional trading today, as well as a 4.2% drop in Vodafone shares and a 2.3% drop in BT, amid jitters over the prospect that SpaceX could start offering retail telecoms services to US consumers.
Airtel Money shares start trading on London Stock Exchange
Shares in Airtel Money have begun conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange, marking the biggest float in five years.
It is also the fifth biggest company by market value to float on the exchange, excluding those on the international main market.
Shares were priced at £1.96, valuing the company at £5.3bn. (Unconditional trading is expected to start on 14 October.)
Its parent company Airtel Africa – the telecoms provider ultimately controlled by the billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal –had originally targeted a listing in the first six months of 2026 but delayed it to the second half of the year, blaming unfavourable market conditions as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Several other companies have pushed back planned IPOs amid market volatility.
Airtel Africa was already listed on the FTSE 100, but bosses wanted Airtel Money to be listed separately.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said it has the potential to encourage more companies to list on the UK stock market:
Chief executives sitting on the fence about whether to choose London as a listing destination might be watching Airtel Money’s success with great interest and noting the decent show of support from retail investors.
Airtel Africa’s success will have certainly played a part in Airtel Money also selecting to list in the UK, but so too will the market’s reputation of having a broad range of investors willing to consider companies from any sector and not only being interested in AI-related technology.
The UK stock market might have suffered from low tech representation, yet its more diversified interests have shone in recent times when investors have started to question if there is a new tech bubble, and whether it’s about to burst.
Oil prices ease further, Brent crude down 1.3%
Brent crude prices are now down 1.3%, easing further s from where we started – having been down around 1% earlier this morning.
Neil Wilson, an investor strategist at Saxo UK, says Trump’s comments regarding a pause in strikes, have “allayed fears” of a fresh flare-up in the war in the Middle East, following reports that the US was going to resume military action.
Fresh strikes would disrupt the flows that have been painstakingly re-established over recent weeks to pre-war levels, and represents a clear material upside risk to crude prices and term structure.
Brent scaled almost $106 before the comments from Trump took it down a couple of bucks to $104 this morning.
Mark Sweney
OpenAI has revealed that it is making about $20bn less in projected revenue than it had recently indicated to investors, raising questions about the break-neck growth rate in demand for AI.
The ChatGPT-maker company has told investors that its revenues for this year would reach $50bn (£37bn), a projection based on sales up to the end of September.
However, this is significantly less than the $70bn that it had signalled in information provided to investors last month, which was widely reported.
Forecasts of annualised revenues by the leading artificial intelligence players, including by OpenAI’s rival Anthropic, the maker of Claude, are closely watched by markets as an indicator of overall demand for a technology that is attracting huge investment.
OpenAI is in early-stage talks to raise $30bn in a funding round that values the business at about $1.4tn.
News of the $20bn gap buffeted US tech stocks on Thursday, with the tech-led Nasdaq closing down by 1.4%. Chip giant Nvidia fell 2.9%, Oracle was down 5.5% and Micron declined 4.8%.
Read more here:
Full story: Donald Trump has promised not to attack Iran before November’s US midterm elections, outlining a pause on the protracted war he has struggled to end after almost eight months.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the US president said Washington was “having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran”, which he claimed was “in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily”.
The strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through before the war, was all but closed after the US and Israel struck Iran in late February.
On Thursday, however, Trump suggested that oil was moving through the strait in record volumes: “22 Million Barrels, last night alone”, he claimed, “with not one barrel coming from, or going to, Iran”. The figure could not be independently verified.
“We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd,” Trump wrote. “IRAN WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
Read more here:
It’s worth remembering that this morning’s pullback in oil prices comes after Brent crude posted its biggest daily jump in two weeks, rising more than 4% to $104.28 per barrel.
That was driven by mounting fears of further escalation of the US war on Iran, which this past week was punctuated by Houthi attacks on two attacks in Saudi Arabia, and new attacks on ships in the strait of Hormuz.
US magazine The Atlantic also reported overnight that the White House had asked the Pentagon to develop strike options that could be used before the midterms.
As Deutsche Bank analysts note, “that that ran counter to assumptions that there wouldn’t be an escalation before the midterms.”
UK and US telecom stocks have tumbled after Elon Musk’s SpaceX took a major step towards launching a Starlink mobile service for American consumers.
The company announced it had bought a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio that it said would help it launch a full mobile business in the US.
This would be done by providing what it claimed was the world’s “most advanced broadband network from space”:
This prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US.
The potential competition has spooked investors in some of the US’ biggest mobile carriers. Verizon Communications tumbled 7%, AT&T dropped 7.5% and T-Mobile US fell 6.7%.
Those jitters also weighed on UK telecom stocks, pushing BT (which owns EE) down 0.5% and Vodafone down 2.6%
SpaceX currently runs high speed internet connections in more than 160 countries, via its constellations of satellites.
Trump’s pledge to pause attacks on Iran, and China’s resumption of fuel exports, are offsetting concerns about potential disruptions to oil supplies in the US Gulf coast as a result of Hurricane Isaias.
The hurricane, which intensified from a tropical storm into the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday night, has prompted state of emergency declarations in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.
US producers in the Gulf of Mexico have temporarily halted operations, representing around 1.3 million barrels per day of oil production and 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.
Reuters reported that personnel had already been evacuated from 121 production platforms, , citing the Marine Minerals Administration. That represents around 33% of the 371 manned platforms in the Gulf, and workers had been removed from five of 11 non-dynamically positioned rigs, it said.
Introduction: Oil prices ease as Trump pledges to pause Iran attacks, and China restarts fuel exports
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
We’re seeing a dip in oil prices this morning, with Brent crude down about 1% at $103 per barrel, following another momentary pause in US attacks on Iran.
Prices eased overnight on news that US president Donald Trump had pledged not to attack Iran ahead of the US midterm elections, which take place on 3 November.
It comes as public support for his war in the Middle East is waning and ultimately weighing on Republican election campaigns.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said:
We are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran. I want to make it clear to everybody that, while Iran is in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily, and while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, with Oil flowing in Record Numbers of Barrels through the Hormuz Strait (22 Million Barrels, last night alone, with not one barrel coming from, or going to, Iran!), we will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd. IRAN WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!
An Reuters/Ipsos survey from late September show thats only a third of Americans approve of strikes on Iran, while approval for Trump among Republicans had fallen from 82% to 73% in a week.
Polling averages now show Democrats leading Republicans by roughly nine points on the generic congressional ballot, according to forecaster Nate Silver, the widest margin of this election cycle.
Oil prices have also eased on news that China is set to resume fuel exports, after a pause in deliveries during the country’s Golden Week holiday. The resumption of exports are expected to boost tight global supplies of diesel, gas, and jet fuel.
The Agenda
