Closing post
And finally, the FTSE 100 has closed down 27 points or 0.26% at 10,314, away from the record high hit this morning.
Although miners and precious metal producers rallied, as the gold and silver price jumped, the index was dragged down by Relx (-14.3%) and the London Stock Exchange Group (-12.8%), as investors reacted to US artificial intelligence firm Anthropic unveileing a tool for companies’ in-house lawyers.
AJ Bell head of markets Dan Coatsworth says:
“The likes of RELX, London Stock Exchange Group, Experian, Sage, Informa and Pearson were smashed as AI provider Anthropic unveiled a new product.
“The company behind the Claude chatbot has launched a new ‘agentic’ tool for corporate legal teams which can automate legal work, including reviewing contracts and composing briefings.
“RELX makes significant sums from analysing data for legal firms but the scale and breadth of the sell-off in RELX and others reflects fears that Anthropic’s breakthrough in this area will soon spread. While these data businesses have made the argument that AI can be an opportunity rather than a threat, the market seems unconvinced.
“The concern will be that, at the very least, the emergence of tools like the one unveiled by Anthropic will reduce the margins these data-driven companies can achieve and in a worst-case scenario disintermediate them entirely.
“Fund manager Nick Train’s Finsbury Growth & Income investment trust, which has underperformed for an extended period, was down sharply on Tuesday. As of the end of 2025, Sage, Experian, London Stock Exchange Group and RELX were all top 10 holdings in the trust.”
Gold is now up a chunky 6.2% at $4,957 an ounce, still on track for its best day since 2008.
Here’s the rest of today’s news:
Updated
The dollar is dipping back today, helping to lift sterling by almost half a cent to $1.37.
Thomson Reuters is also caught up in the selloff among legal software and publishing firms today.
Shares in Thomson Reuters are down 17% in New York, after Anthropic announced a new artificial intelligence-powered plugin for in-house legal teams for its Claude AI service.
Thomson Reuters runs Practical Law, which provides legal guidance for lawyers, and legal database Westlaw. It has also tried to embrace artificial intelligence through CoCounsel Legal UK, a platform that combines AI capabilities with Practical Law guidance and Westlaw UK content.
Palantir shares jump after results beat forecasts
Shares in Palantir have jumped 6% in early Wall Street trading, after beating analyst forecasts last night.
CEO Alex Karp described the company’s growth on an earnings call as “one of the truly iconic performances in the history of corporate performance”. He wrote in a letter accompanying the earnings report that the $1.4bn in revenue generated in last year’s fourth quarter marks a new record – a 70% growth rate over the same period the year before.
Some of this revenue growth comes from federal contracts secured amid Trump’s crackdown on immigrants.
US hypermarket chain Walmart has crossed the $1tn market value mark for the first time.
Shares in Walmart, which had been worth $988bn last night, are up 0.85% this morning, pushing its value over $1tn.
The company has been growing its revenues last year, lifted by e-commerce growth and winning new customers – prompting it to raise its sales and earnings outlook last November.
Over on Wall Street, stock have opened higher.
The S&P 500 is up 0.15%, while the Nasdaq has gained 0.35% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 0.2% higher.
FTSE 100 falls from record high as AI hits legal software stocks
Back in London, the FTSE 100 index is sliding away from this morning’s record high (see here) as legal software and publishing firms are hammered by AI worries.
As flagged earlier (12.36pm), the launch of a new legal plugin for the Claude chatbot has spooked investors in the sector.
Relx, which owns data analytics firm LexisNexis, are now down over 14%, while UK publishing group Pearson’s shares are now down 4.4%.
This has helped to pull the FTSE 100 down by 0.9% today, a loss of 94 points, to 10,247, having hit a record high of 10,373 points early this morning.
Anthropic, publisher of Claude, has saidits tool could automate legal work such as contract reviewing, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings and templated responses.
However, it said the plugin did not provide legal advice. “AI-generated analysis should be reviewed by licensed attorneys before being relied upon for legal decisions,” the startup said.
Updated
Josh D’Amaro named as Disney CEO
The waiting is finally over!
After a three-year search, Walt Disney has chosen its successor to Bob Iger as chief executive officer.
Josh D’Amaro, currently the chairman of Disney Experiences, has been unanimously chosen by Disney’s board in a vote yesterday. He’ll take over from Iger at Disney’s AEM on 18 March.
Disney says:
As head of the company’s largest business segment with $36 billion in annual revenue in FY2025 and 185,000 Cast Members and employees worldwide, D’Amaro, a 28-year Disney veteran, is the architect of the largest global expansion in Disney Experiences history, and has led the segment to new heights financially, creatively, and in guest satisfaction.
Iger was reappointed as Disney’s CEO in November 2022, having first retired in 2020, and was meant to serve two years.
Silver is continuing to climb, now up over 9% at almost $87 an ounce.
That still leaves silver a way below last week’s record high of $121/oz, following its near-30% plunge on Friday and smaller losses yesterday.
Alexandra Symeonidi, analyst at William Blair Investment Management, attributes the selloff to factors including the stronger dollar, profit-taking by investors, and changes to margin requirements at metal trading exchanges which wiped out some trading positions.
She predicts more volatility ahead:
Looking ahead, silver continues to face liquidity challenges that could fuel further sharp price swings, and market balances still point to a deficit this year.
Moreover, speculative positioning has decreased and remains light, implying it might have not been behind the recent rally. That said, we believe that industrial demand, which accounts for roughly 60% of total silver demand, remains soft, and prices are still higher year‑to‑date. Overall, we expect volatility to persist in silver specifically and in metals more broadly.”
Shares in European legal software companies, and publishing firms, have fallen heavily today, as the shadow of AI fell on the sector.
The selloff appears to be sparked by intelligence firm Anthropic’s release of a legal plug-in for its Claude AI service.
RELX, the information and analytics company, has fallen by 11% so far today, pulling the FTSE 100 back from its earlier record high.
Wolters Kluwer, the Dutch multinational company that provides information, software, and services for professionals including accountants, doctors and lawyers, have dropped by 8%.
Europe’s benchmark share index has also hit a record high today.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index is up 0.4% at 619.86 points, with basic resources (mining) companies leading the risers.
European mining sector remains the best-performing one this year with a more than 13% gain, Reuters points out.
Gold is 12% above yesterday’s lows, while silver is 22% higher – moves which suggest the market remains “somewhat disorderly and prone to wild swings in price”, says Neil Wilson, Saxo UK investor strategist.
Wilson writes:
Nevertheless, investors and traders are dipping their toes in the waters after the clear-out of a lot of the froth and leveraged speculative positions, which a) might give them confidence that perhaps the worst of the volatility is over; and b) prices had plunged so much so fast they think it’s worth a go at these levels.
A lot of people sitting on the sidelines for months feeling every day they’d missed their chance to get in will be part of this renewed wave of buying. And if you’d liked gold at $5,500 you might love it at $4,400 – a chance to average down your cost meaningfully if you remain a long-term bull.
Indeed, long-term fundamentals for gold in particular haven’t gone away; and industrial supply-demand dynamics for silver and copper is structural not ephemeral.
Trump’s latest tariff u-turn has helped to lift markets, reports Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club:
‘’The Footsie has raced up to fresh records as a rally in gold and silver prices help boost fortunes of mining giants. Trade tailwinds helping propel the index higher, with more optimism swirling about the prospects for global growth. The strengthening of the dollar in recent days is helping to buoy multinational London listed companies. The Footsie has found its mojo once again, with investors drawn in by its defensive qualities in a volatile world.
Bargain hunters have been out in force, buying up precious metals after the dramatic fall in prices. Gold and silver are in recovery mode but are still cooler than the hot records reached last week. Gold is around 12% lower, and silver is 28% below its peak, but compared to this time last year, the rise has still been remarkable. Safe haven demand is still strong, given the erratic policymaking from the White House, and fractious geopolitical relations.
The TACO trade has come to the fore again, given that President Trump has again rolled back on some of the more onerous tariffs levied again trading partners. Trump chickening out from headline threats has been his modus operandi, though he does so by squeezing concessions out of negotiations. This time India is benefiting from the roll-back, with US tariffs on Indian goods slashed in return for India ceasing the purchase of Russian oil and buying more US commodities. This will provide significant relief for India’s exporters, opening up new supply chains.
Britain’s smaller share price index, the FTSE 250, has hit a four-year high this morning.
The FTSE 250, which contains medium-sized companies too small for the FTSE 100, gained over 0.3% to hit 23,520 points, the highest level since January 2022.
Trading platform Plus500 (+7%) are the top riser after annnouncing it has launched an event-based prediction markets on its US retail platform.
The Plus500 Futures offering will let retail customers trade contracts on economic, financial, and geopolitical events – following the roaring success of Polymarket.
UK grocery inflation drops
UK grocery inflation has dropped to a nine-month low, in welcome news for UK households, and the Bank of England.
Worldpanel by Numerator has reported that like-for-like grocery price inflation eased back to 4.0% in January, the lowest level since April last year.
The report also shows that own label accounted for 52.2% of grocery spending – the highest level ever recorded – as shoppers snaffled up cheaper options on the shelves.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel by Numerator, says:
For most shoppers, January is all about resetting household budgets, and this year was no exception. While grocery sales continue to grow and inflation eased to its lowest level in months, value remained front of mind for many – with own label hitting a record high, accounting for more than half of all grocery spend.
More here:
Updated
Gold heads for biggest daily gain since 2008
Gold is on track for its biggest one-day jump since the financial crisis this morning!
Spot gold is up 5.8% so far today at $4,939 an ounce, as traders pile back in after the losses over the last two trading sessions.
This would be the biggest one-day gain since November 2008.
It appears that the sharp drop in gold on Friday and Monday, after it hit a record high near $5,600/oz, has shaken out some leveraged speculative positions, giving some investors confidence to dip a toe back into the bullion market.
Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, says:
Gold prices have stopped falling overnight. If the froth is removed from the market, gold may again start to offer some signals as to market perceptions of political risk (concerns over the perceived shift in US international standing and risk-averse investors’ questions around the rule of law having motivated some of the initial rise in price).
Interactive investor: calm returns to markets
Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, says “a sense of calm descended after the precious metal ructions, opening the door for investors to buy on the dip”.
The technical and sentiment driven declines found a floor, which drove a return to a risk-on approach. After all, despite the dip in the gold price, the commodity remains up by 14% this year and by 87% over the last 12 months, which suggests a healthy correction was overdue without necessarily indicating a fundamental change.
FTSE 100 hits record high as miners recover
Britain’s FTSE 100 share index has hit another record high at the start of trading.
With a risk-on mood gripping markets, the Footsie has gained 21 points, or 0.2%, to touch a fresh intraday high of 10,362 points.
This means the index has risen by 4.3% so far this year.
Mining stocks are back in the top risers; gold and metal producer Endeavour has jumped by 5%, followed by rival Fresnillo (+4%).
Copper producer Antofagasta (+2.5%) and Anglo American (+2.3%) are also benefitting from a pick-up in commodity prices.
India's stock market rallies on US trade deal
India’s stock market has jumped after Narendra Modi and Donald Trump agreed a trade deal.
Trump announced last night that India has agreed to stop buying Russian oil as he announced plans to cut US tariffs on Indian exports.
US tariffs on Indian exports are set to fall from 25% to 18%, the president said, claiming that India would “likewise move forward to reduce their Tariffs and Non Tariff Barriers against the United States, to ZERO”.
Although full details of the deal haven’t been released, the Sensex stock index has jumped by 2.8% so far today.
India’s currency has also strengthened, with the rupee gaining 1.4% to 90.20 per dollar.
Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank’s market strategist, credits the recovery on strong US economic data yesterday:
Markets have seen a huge turnaround over the last 24 hours, with the S&P 500 (+0.54%) closing just shy of its record high, with another +0.25% gain in futures this morning after being over -2% lower than current levels this time yesterday.
The recovery had several drivers, but the biggest was the ISM manufacturing index, which unexpectedly surged to its highest level since 2022. So that led to growing optimism on the 2026 outlook, along with a classic risk-on move.
South Korea’s KOSPI index has also bounced back strongly from hefty losses yesterday.
The KOSPI, which fell over 5% on Monday, has surged by 6.8% today – its biggest daily rise since 24 March 2020.
Nikkei closes at record high
Japan’s Nikkei share average has surged by almost 4% today, amid a wider stock market rally.
The Nikkei 225 rose 3.92% to close at 54,720.66, a record high and its biggest daily gain since October 25, as the rebound in gold and silver helped to calm market nerves.
SpaceX buys xAI in $1.25tn deal
The biggest business news of the morning is that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence business xAI for $250bn.
The move consolidates two key part of Musk’s empire, giving the newly merged company a paper valuation of $1.25trn…. as SpaceX prepares to to public later this year.
Received the merger docs for xAI. This is a done deal with spaceX valued at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. SpaceX now owns xAI. $tsla
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) February 2, 2026
The two companies announced the deal on Monday in a statement on SpaceX’s website, saying the merger would form..
“the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform”.
SpaceX, one of the world’s most valuable private companies, will gain xAI properties such as its Grok chatbot and the social media platform X. The acquisition comes as Musk has pursued plans to put datacenters and solar-powered satellites in space as a means of powering artificial intelligence, an immense and exorbitantly expensive undertaking.
Introduction: Gold and silver rally resumes
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
And welcome to Turnaround Tuesday too. After tumbling on Monday, precious metals and Asia-Pacific stock markets are both recovering today.
Gold’s up 4.5% this morning at $4,877 an ounce, quite a recovery from yesterday’s $4,403oz, while silver’s picked up 6.5% to $84.70.
That still leaves gold 12% shy of last week’s record highs, after its worst day since the early 1980s on Friday, when silver experienced its worst intraday collapse ever.
But it’s possible that the worst of the “metals meltdown” is behind us, after some highly speculative, leveraged traders were driven out of the market by the turbulence of recent days.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, says:
With leveraged speculative positions flushed out, investors may feel they are returning to a freshly cleaned playground, albeit cautiously.
The long-term outlook for gold remains bullish. The factors supporting gold prices since last year remain firmly in place: trade and geopolitical uncertainty persists; G7 debt dynamics look increasingly unsustainable and are likely to worsen — not only in the US with the “Big, Beautiful Bill”, but also in Japan and in Europe amid rising defence spending.
The agenda
9.45am GMT: Treasury Committee hearing on government’s financial inclusion strategy.
8:00am GMT: UK grocery inflation figures for January
3pm GMT: US JOLTS job openings report
3pm GMT: Chief Secretary to the Treasury to give evidence to Economic Affairs Committee
