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.
