Closing summary
The chief executive of Barclays has said he is “deeply dismayed and shocked” at the “depravity and the corruption” revealed in the Epstein files, as the bank deals with the fallout of its ex-boss Jes Staley’s ties to the convicted child sex offender.
In his first public comments on the matter since the US Department of Justice began publishing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein in December, CS Venkatakrishnan said his thoughts went out to the victims of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting child sex trafficking charges.
“I’m very, very deeply dismayed and shocked by the moral depravity and the corruption that you’re reading about in the latest set of instalments. You know, my heart really goes out to victims of this scandal and these crimes,” he said.
BP has halted share buybacks after reporting weaker annual profits as it prepares to continue a plan to resuscitate its fortunes under a new chief executive.
The company became the first large oil company to suspend its buybacks after its underlying earnings fell to just below $7.5bn (£5.5bn) for 2025, down from almost $9bn for 2024.
Japan’s stock market has hit a record high after Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) secured a comprehensive victory in Sunday’s election.
The boss of Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company has said the government’s recent drug pricing deal is a “very positive step” but is unlikely to unfreeze a paused £200m investment in Cambridge.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, suggested that a UK-US deal on NHS pricing agreed in December would not be “sufficient” to restart the project to build a research site in the east of England, which was paused in September.
Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Take care – JK
Steel executive: Government has just 8 weeks to save industry
Here’s more on steel, from the Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll.
The head of the UK’s biggest steel outfit, Tata, has said the British steel industry is “teetering on the brink” of extinction with just “two months” to be saved.
Russell Codling, director of markets business development at Tata Steel UK, told MPs on the trade select committee that he was not exaggerating when he said the government had eight weeks to go before the industry could be drowned by cheap Chinese imports.
He urged the government to urgently act to safeguard the sector with measures following the footsteps of the EU and the US.
“If the UK doesn’t act we won’t have a steel industry not many months from now,” he warned.
Safeguards which impose a 25% tariff on specific imported steel products expires at the end of June but the government has yet to announce any replacement system, which in turn must be agreed internationally. Codling told MPs:
We need action, we need action now, that needs to be in position by 1 July. We only have 8 weeks in which to act.
I know it sounds radical statement to make but we are really there. If we need to act by 1 July, the market needs to understand what is happening and it doesn’t there have been no announcements yet.
He pointed out that China exported a record 119m tonnes of steel last year, dwarfing the 90m tonnes the US consumed and close to the 140m the whole of Europe including the UK used in 2025.
It is an inordinate amount of material, massively distorting the global steel industry. The US has chosen to act, the EU has proposed to act… they are choosing to put 50% tariff in place and halve their quota system.
Many many other countries in the world are doing the same and in the UK we are still processing it and we haven’t made an announcement yet.
We risk over analysing, over assessing and ending up with something that either doesn’t dl against the goal of protecting the industry, the last bit of the industry, there is not a steel company in the UK that is making any form of a profit, they are all just about teetering on the edge and just about to maintain their position.“
Dow Jones hits intra-day record high; European insurance stocks, price comparison sites slide
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones has hit an intra-day record high.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 2.3% to a new all-time high for the second day in a row, extending a rally sparked by prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) securing a comprehensive victory in Sunday’s election.
European shares have edged higher with the exception of Spain’s Ibex, which is down 0.25%, while the UK’s FTSE index lost almost 0.4%, or 37 points, to 10,348.
European insurance stocks are falling, mirroring moves in US insurance brokers yesterday amid fresh fears that new artificial intelligence tools could hit the sector.
In London, Hiscox is down 3.5% while Aviva has lost 2.7% and Admiral shares fell 1.7%, while France’s Axa dropped 2.1% on Euronext Paris.
UK financial comparison websites have also suffered steep losses, with Moneysupermarket owner Mony Group sliding 12% and GoCompare owner Future down 3.6%.
On Monday, shares in top US insurance brokers Willis Towers Watson, Aon and Arthur J Gallagher slumped after the Masschusetts-based online insurance platform Insurify released an AI-powered comparison tool built on ChatGPT. They have clawed back some of these losses today.
This comes after European legal software and data analytics stocks slumped last week, after an update for start-up Anthropic’s AI tools.
The British government has just two months to save the British steel industry, a senior executive of the country’s biggest industry player has told MPs.
Russell Codling, director of markets business development at Tata Steel UK, told the parliamentary select committee that official safeguards against international competition expire in less than four months’ time, leaving the already fragile industry on a precipice.
“This is a death toll for the industry at large and all its supply chains,” he said, urging the government to step up efforts to introduce new safeguards.
Tata Steel UK, which owns the steel plant in Port Talbot along with other facilities in Wales and in Corby in Northampshire and Hartlepool in the north east, warned that the already fragile industry is facing a flood of cheap products from China and elsewhere.
Codling said:
The safeguard position expires at the end of June this year, exposing the UK steel industry to the full force of that global oversupply, around the world.
Frankly speaking, we have two months where the UK government has two months in which to save the steel industry because this is, a death toll for the, for the industry at large and all of its supply chain.
Paramount sweetens Warner Bros bid with extra cash, Netflix break-up fee cover
Paramount has sweetened its $108bn bid for Warner Bros Discovery.
The company, led by billionaire David Ellison, has been trying to gatecrash Netflix’s agreed $83bn deal with Warner Bros for its studio and streaming assets.
Paramount has improved its $30 a share bid for WBD, offering shareholders extra cash that will compensate them if regulators delay completion of the transaction. It has also agreed to cover the $2.8bn breakup fee the HBO owner would owe Netflix if it walked away from their deal.
The 25 cent per share “ticking fee” is worth $650m in cash each quarter between January 1, 2027, and the completion of the Paramount deal, Paramount said on Tuesday.
Both Netflix and Paramount want to acquire WBD for its leading film and television studios, extensive content library and major franchises such as “Game of Thrones,” “Harry Potter” and DC Comics’ superheroes Batman and Superman.
Paramount has engaged in an aggressive media campaign to try to convince shareholders that its bid is superior, but WBD has so far spurned the company.
WBD will hold a special investor meeting to vote on the Netflix deal, with the streaming pioneer saying that the meeting is expected to be held by April.
Wall Street opens higher; dollar and gold dip
Wall Street has opened moderately higher, after yesterday’s rally, when technology stocks bounced back after last week’s heavy sell-off.
The Dow Jones climbed nearly 60 points, or 0.1%, at the open to 50,193. The S&P 500 rose almost 10 points, also a 0.1% gain, to 6,974 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 32 points, or 0.1%, to 23,271 at the opening bell.
The dollar has slipped slightly, by 0.16% against a basket of major currencies.
In Asia, Japan’s benchmark, the Nikkei, rose 2.3% to a new record high for the second day in a row.
Crude oil prices have risen, with Brent up 0.45% at $69.35 a barrel.
Gold has edged lower but remains above $5,000. It dipped .1% to $5,058 an ounce.
Retail sales in the US were flat in December, confounding expectations of a small increase.
Retail sales volumes showed no change against forecasts of a 0.4% gain, and compared with a 0.6% increase in November, according to official figures from the US Commerce Department.
Food sales rose by 0.2%, following a 0.1% drop in November. Clothing sales were down 0.7% after a 0.5% increase the month before.
Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Schwab Center for Financial Research, summed up the main numbers:
December retail sales 0% vs. +0.4% est. & +0.6% prior; control group -0.1% vs. +0.2% prior (rev down from +0.4%); ex-autos 0% vs. +0.4% prior (rev down from +0.5%) pic.twitter.com/BbJwHL35ne
— Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) February 10, 2026
US economic data releases have been delayed because of the recent government shutdown. Tomorrow, we’ll be getting non-farm payrolls for January, a key jobs report.
Updated
Barclays hikes bonuses for 12-year high
Barclays bankers will be popping the champagne corks after the lender hiked bonuses to their highest level in 12 years.
Bankers will be sharing £2.2bn worth of bonuses for the 2025 financial year, marking a 15% increase from £1.9bn last year. It comes after Barclays revealed a 13% rise in full year profits on Tuesday to £9.1bn.
It is the biggest sum put aside for its bankers since 2013 – when the bank controversially hiked payouts despite profits dropping by nearly a third that year – and comes after the UK scrapped a cap on bonuses for bankers in 2023.
Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan also benefited, seeing his total pay jump 30% to £15m for 2025.
The bank’s annual report showed that while his fixed pay drop under a new pay policy to £2.1m from £2.9m last year, that fall was more than offset by a 50% surge in his bonus to £12.8m.
Part of that was down to a rise in Barclays’ share price, which helped boost the value of his long-term bonus that is paid in the bank’s own shares. That helped increase his total long term incentive pay - known as his LTIP - to £9.5m, up from £6.2m last year.
The CEO’s annual bonus also grew by £1m to £3.3m.
Chief financial officer Anna Cross will also be celebrating, as the first payouts from her long-term bonus resulted in a 173% jump in her total pay package to £8.8m.
Barclays CEO ‘shocked’ by Epstein revelations as bank deals with Staley fallout
The chief executive of Barclays has said he is “deeply dismayed and shocked” at the “depravity and the corruption” revealed in the Epstein files, as the bank deals with the fallout of its ex-boss Jes Staley’s ties to the convicted child sex offender.
In his first public comments on the matter since the US Department of Justice began publishing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein in December, CS Venkatakrishnan said his thoughts went out to the victims of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting child sex trafficking charges. He said:
I’m very, very deeply dismayed and shocked by the moral depravity and the corruption that you’re reading about in the latest set of instalments. You know, my heart really goes out to victims of this scandal and these crimes.
However, the Barclays boss – speaking as the bank reported annual profits – stopped short of commenting directly on allegations against his predecessor, Staley.
The Guardian reported last week that, in 2019, US prosecutors reviewed allegations of rape and bodily harm against Staley, including that he forced a woman to touch his genitals during a massage before raping her, and left “bloody marks” on the arms of a woman he called “Tinkerbell”.
There is no evidence that prosecutors decided to pursue the allegations. Staley, who has previously denied any wrongdoing, has not responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment made over several months, either directly or via his lawyers. He has never been charged with a crime related to the allegations.
During a UK court hearing in 2025, Staley admitted to having sex with a member of Epstein’s staff in New York, but agreed with a lawyer during cross-examination that he would describe the intercourse as “consensual”.
When Venkatakrishnan was asked whether the allegations outlined in the Epstein files had prompted any further internal reviews at Barclays, the bank’s head of media said: “We have nothing further to add on that point.”
It comes as the bank and its chair, Nigel Higgins, continue to battle a class action lawsuit in the US over claims they defrauded and misled investors over Staley’s relationship with Epstein.
Updated
Lower-income families face 137-year wait for living standards to double, says UK thinktank
It would take 137 years for lower-income families in the UK to see their living standards double at the current rate of growth, according to a thinktank.
A two-decade stagnation in disposable incomes has created a “mood of unease” across the country, the Resolution Foundation says, warning of the risk of “further political disruption” unless pay growth accelerates.
In the 40 years to 2005, the typical disposable income of working-age families in the poorest half of the population doubled, after growing by 1.8% a year on average once adjusted for inflation, according to the thinktank. In the final decade of that period, growth in disposable incomes rose by 4% a year and looked on course to double within 18 years.
Since 2005, however, there has been a significant slowdown. The rate of growth in disposable incomes – measured after taxes and housing costs – has increased by just 0.5% for lower-income families. The Resolution Foundation said: “If progress continues to crawl in the way it has since the mid-2000s, a further doubling would take over 130 years.”
The thinktank defines lower-income families working-age households with disposable incomes below the national median and no one above the state pension age.
UK and US sink to new lows in global index of corruption
The UK and US have sunk to new lows in a global index of corruption, amid a “worrying trend” of democratic institutions being eroded by political donations, cash for access and state targeting of campaigners and journalists.
Experts and businesspeople rated 182 countries based on their perception of corruption levels in the public sector to compile a league table that was bookended by Denmark at the top with the lowest levels of corruption and South Sudan at the bottom.
The Corruption Perceptions Index, organised by the campaign group Transparency International, identified an overall global deterioration, as 31 countries improved their score, while 50 declined.
In particular, the report identified backsliding in established democracies, warning that events during Donald Trump’s presidency and the revelations contained in the Epstein files could fuel further deterioration.
£700m ‘fish disco’ plan could save 90% of marine life, says Hinkley Point C study
Scientists have found that plans to use a “fish disco” to deter migratory marine life from the nearby Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor could help save 90% of fish from the power plant’s water intake pipes – but the solution is set to cost its developer £700m.
EDF Energy, which is building the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset, said research it commissioned from scientists at Swansea University had found that using an acoustic deterrent system helped to ward off the “vast majority” of fish it tagged for the experiment.
The costly system, informally referred to as a “fish disco”, is designed to use more than 300 underwater speakers to emit sound pulses to repel fish from the water intake pipes, which will suck in water from the River Severn to help cool Hinkley’s reactors.
EDF said it expected to spend about £700m on the solution, or 1.5% of the total cost of building the £46bn project, which would give Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation “more fish protection than any other power station in the world”.
Bellway shares rise; sees 'clear signs of improving customer demand'
Bellway, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, said it sees “clear signs” of improving demand for housing in the key spring selling season, after economic uncertainty during the autumn weighed on sales.
Bellway shares rose nearly 4% on the news.
It completed 4,702 homes in the six months to 31 January, up from 4,577 a year earlier, at an average selling price of £322,000, up from £310,581.
However, its private reservation rate per outlet per week slipped to 0.47 from 0.51, and its order book at 31 January comprised 4,442 homes against 4,726 a year earlier, with a value of £1.2bn versus £1.3bn.
Jason Honeyman, the chief executive, said Bellway had delivered “a robust first half performance in a challenging market”. He added:
We welcome the government’s reforms to the planning system, however, to make meaningful headway against its ambitious housing targets, the government must also make an early commitment to ease demand-side pressures by introducing essential financial support for first-time buyers.
The government has made an ambitious pledge to build 1.5m homes over the course of this parliament in England, with a focus on social and affordable housing.
Bellway said:
There are clear signs of improving customer demand in the early weeks of the current spring selling season compared to the subdued trading environment through the autumn. While we remain mindful of the sensitivity of customer demand to mortgage affordability and the evolving economic backdrop, we have been encouraged by a pick-up in both reservation rates and leads for our sales teams.
BP shares are among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 index this morning, dropping more than 4% in early trading.
Our energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose reports:
BP has halted share buy-backs after reporting weaker annual profits as it prepares to continue a plan to resuscitate its fortunes under a new chief executive.
The company’s underlying earnings fell to just below $7.5bn (£5.5bn) for 2025, from almost $9bn for 2024, after global oil prices fell for a third consecutive year and at the steepest rate since the Covid pandemic.
It said it would suspend quarterly share buy-backs from investors for the first time since the early stages of the pandemic, when a global collapse in oil prices forced the 116-year-old company to a record loss.
The decision to halt share buy-backs to strengthen its balance sheet will pile pressure on the company to win over investors with a new strategic vision after a failed attempt to pursue a green agenda.
Its incoming chief executive, Meg O’Neill – the former head of the Australian oil company Woodside Energy – will take up the role in April as BP’s third boss in as many years and is expected to enforce “rigour” to BP’s turnaround plan. Meanwhile, activist shareholders are continuing to push the company to prepare for a long-term decline in fossil fuel demand.
AstraZeneca predicts steady growth in 2026 on strong cancer drug sales
Britain’s biggest drugmaker AstraZeneca has forecast more strong sales and profit growth this year, on the back of its cancer treatments and newer drugs, as it expands in the US and China.
The FTSE 100 company’s share price rose by more than 2% in early trading.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive since 2012 who has rebuilt the company’s drugs pipeline and turned AZ into the UK’s most valuable listed business, is steering it towards a target of $80bn in annual sales by 2030, despite price cuts in the US and shifting tariff and healthcare policies.
The drugmaker is pushing strongly into the US and China, its top two markets, with $50bn and $15bn investments respectively over the coming years. It listed its shares in New York and they began trading on 2 February, but kept its main listing in London.
While Soriot has reiterated AZ’s commitment to the UK, it has had a prickly relationship with the UK government of late, with a long-running row between industry and ministers over drug pricing and access to new drugs on the NHS.
For example, AZ’s breast cancer infusion Enhertu has not been recommended for use on the NHS in England and Wales by NICE ( National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), the body that assesses new drugs for cost effectivenesss.
The drugmaker scrapped a planned £450m expansion of its vaccine site in Speke near Liverpool a year ago, and paused another £200m investment in Cambridge in September.
The company is predicting that 2026 revenue will grow by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage at constant currency rates, and core profit growth of a low double-digit percentage.
In 2025, sales rose 8% to $58.7bn while profits were up 11%, in line with expectations. Sales in the fourth quarter rose 2% to $15.5bn, slightly better than analysts had expected.
Sales of cancer drugs rose 20% to $7bn in the quarter, but revenue from cardiovascular drugs fell 6% to $3.05bn, party due to generic competition.
Soriot said the drugmaker now has 16 blockbuster medicines.
The momentum across our company is continuing in 2026 and we are looking forward to the results of more than 20 Phase 3 trial [late-stage] readouts this year. We have more than 100 Phase 3 studies ongoing.
Updated
Introduction: Global stocks reach record highs; BP annual profits slump 16%
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Global stocks hit a new record in Asian trade, led by a three-day rally in Tokyo where the Nikkei jumped to a fresh peak, after Japan’s conservative governing coalition strengthened its grip on power.
Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) secured a comprehensive victory in Sunday’s election. The Nikkei jumped 2.3% to a new all-time high, and the yen rose for a second day.
The gains pushed the MSCI All-Country World Index 0.2% higher to a new record.
The dollar slipped in Asian trade, and is now flat against a basket of other major currencies.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said:
So, the US dollar kicked off the week on the back foot, and upcoming US data from today through Friday will determine whether the pressure continues or whether the greenback finds some relief.
US retail sales today are expected to show slowing growth in December — not great news for the most festive month of the year. On Wednesday, the official jobs report is expected to come in soft, with around 70k non-farm job additions, a steady unemployment rate and slower wage growth at 3.6%.
On Friday, the consumer prices index is seen easing to 2.5% from 2.7% previously. If soft labour data is combined with cooling inflation, US [bond] yields and the dollar could remain under pressure — supporting gold, other metals, Bitcoin and equities, particularly small-, mid-cap and value stocks.
BP has posted a 16% drop in annual profits, with earnings hit in the final three months of 2025 because of sharply lower oil prices.
The FTSE 100 firm reported underlying replacement cost profits – its preferred measure – of $7.5bn (£5.5bn) for 2025, down from $8.9bn in 2024.
It came after fourth-quarter profits plunged 30% quarter-on-quarter to $1.5bn, but were up nearly 30% from the same quarter in 2024. BP said it was putting its share buyback programme on hold to strengthen its balance sheet, to invest in oil and gas opportunities.
Carol Howle, who is running the oil giant on an interim basis until its new chief executive Meg O’Neill starts in April, said:
We are reducing capital expenditure for 2026 to the lower end of the guidance range, while continuing to drive down our cost base. We are also taking decisive action to high-grade our portfolio and strengthen our company, including the execution of our $20bn disposal programme and the decision to suspend the share buyback and fully allocate excess cash to our balance sheet.
O’Neill has been described as a “hard-nosed” outsider who will head BP’s pivot away from green energy.
The Agenda
9.45am GMT: UK Treasury committee to question Treasury and housing ministers on affordability of home ownership
1.30pm GMT: US Retail sales for December
2.45pm GMT: UK Business and trade committee hearing on US-UK trade deal
Updated
