Business news live: Oil prices surge after Israel attacks Iran, FTSE 100 falls after all time high

Oil isn’t the only commodity to be pushing higher on the news of Israel’s attack on Iran.

Gold futures showed a rise of more than 1.5 per cent earlier, before falling back to just over 1.0 per cent now, as investors once more seek safe havens.

Only yesterday, it was revealed that gold had overtaken the Euro as central banks’ second-highest means of creating reserves.

On our European stock markets, there’s an awful lot of red around early this morning.

The price of crude oil shot up early on this morning, following attacks by Israel on Iran which have escalated tensions and the risk of war.

Brent crude oil jumped to just under $76 a barrel before dropping back somewhat, now at $71.65 to show a 4.7 per cent rise.

Crude oil is still 5 per cent up having also hit $75 earlier.

As is usual, not too many companies are reporting on a Friday.

But of those that are, Lindsell Train Investment Trust reporting their finals will be of interest, given previous outflows and more recent suggestion that investors are returning to active, rather than passive, funds.

Energy firm SSE will also be filing their annual report.

And, if you happen to hold the likes of Unilever, Tritax Big Box REIT or insurance behemoth Admiral Group, you can expect a payment today – they’re all on the list of different dividend payers for Friday. Enjoy.

Good morning and welcome to Friday’s edition of The Independent’s rolling coverage of business and stock markets news.

The FTSE 100 will open today from a record high closing price, set on Thursday at 8884.92p.

Falling stocks in the US in part led to that of late, but the perceived undervaluation of UK plc has been much spoken about over the last couple of years and both investors and other companies alike have been taking advantage, with share-buying and entire company-buying prevalent in 2025.

Let’s see where today takes us.

Last month the Bank of England cut interest rates to 4.25 per cent and most analysts at the time expected an ongoing one cut per quarter.

The economic landscape is quickly changing every week this year it seems, however, and analysts are mixed over whether next week’s MPC meeting will result in another cut.

Recent jobs and salary data are an indication that another cut is possible, but higher inflation figures than expected last time out put the case forward for staying higher, longer.

Financial markets are still just about pricing in two further cuts this year, down to 3.75 per cent.

A little while ahead of opening, caution and uncertainty around trade deals mean stocks are set to open lower in the US today.

The S&P 500 is down 0.3 per cent in pre-trading and the Nasdaq is 0.5 per cent down.

However, a few individual winners can be seen before the opening bell too.

Oracle are up more than 8.3 per cent after posting a better than expected earnings report last night and shares are now up close to last December’s highs.

The UK’s primary index, the FTSE 100, remains up by 0.13 per cent today, in contrast to the benchmarks in France and Germany which are down 0.6 and 1.0 per cent respectively.

Within the 100 on these shores, Halma (4.3pc), BT (2.96pc) and Tesco (2.86pc) are the biggest risers.

At the other end of the charts, airlines Easyjet and British Airways owner IAG are more more than 3.5 per cent down, as the wider airline industry watches on to events in India.