Business news live: Oil prices latest as FTSE 100 rises and UK pay growth slows to below inflation rate

With the Israel-Iran ceasefire still looking a fragile one, the price of Brent Crude Oil has risen again on Wednesday.

It’s not a sharp rise such as the movement we saw over the weekend (up) or yesterday after the ceasefire announcement (down), but it still shows the uncertainty in the region.

Brent is up 0.9 per cent today, but it was as much as 1.8pc up just a few hours ago.

“Oil prices remain volatile with Brent crude heading slightly higher on the speculation about hostilities breaking out again. It’s gaining strength from industry data indicating supplies are tighter in the market,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Brent is currently trading at $66.76.

There hasn’t been any additional evidence of escalating tensions between Israel and Iran over the last 12 hours or so and that appears to have put investors in the mood to buy once more.

“Markets were risk-on following the Middle East truce,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“Miners, oil producers and airlines were in demand on the UK stock market, helping to drive the FTSE 100 0.2% higher. There was a clear rotation as investors moved away from more defensive-style stocks such as utilities, tobacco and consumer staples.”

Tesla is once more seeing evidence of brand damage across Europe, with data showing EV sales remain on the rise – but the American carmaker’s sales plummeted once more.

A drop of 28 per cent sales for the region year on year to May has been reported, while vehicle registrations for battery EVs for the region grew by 27 per cent.

Increasing competition from European and Asian EV makers, as well as Tesla’s older model lineup, likely contributed to the falling share of the market.

Halfords reported stronger than expected profits for last year, rising more than 6 per cent to £38.4m.

However, the company also cautioned against inflation and said it needed to make savings of around £35m to offset rising costs including rising labour expenses.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG said:

“Halfords has become the latest retailer to issue a cautious update on the outlook for consumer spending, which comes despite its steady expansion into the higher-margin car servicing business. The rise in earnings for the autocentre division suggests the new CEO appointment is bearing fruit. Overall today’s numbers seem to provide the justification for the recent share price bounce to the current eighteen-month highs.”

Today, following news of the Iran-Israel ceasefire, oil and gas prices fell. Then, when it appeared as though the truce might not last, they climbed again. The movements were not huge – certainly not of the magnitude we might expect with the outbreak of war in the Middle East, the world’s prime energy supplier.

Certainly, they are not embarking on the traditional rollercoaster, soaring and plunging on every development as they have done in past crises. So, what did the traders and their analysts know that we didn’t?

Chris Blackhurst explains all:

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has estimated that losses over fraud for covid loans could be up to £1.9bn, amid criticism over lenders not recouping money.

It stems from the bounce back scheme which allowed businesses to take up to £50,000 quicker and easier than usual.

The FTSE 100 has opened up, just 0.17 per cent in the green but up nonetheless.

Meanwhile the FTSE 250 is up around the same level, while the AIM is down around 0.15 per cent.

In Europe it’s a similar story early on – small rises in France, Germany and on the Euronext.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has explained world events and constant changes to the geopolitical landscape make it all but impossible to predict where the UK’s economy is headed – and even interest rate decisions are tough to predict one BoE meeting ahead due to the pace of changes at present.

“Focusing on the tariff issue… it is very unpredictable where this is all going to end up,” he told MPs.

“We are coming towards the end of the 90-day period that President Trump set out for reaching agreements. We’ve had one agreement so far which is with the UK – it obviously isn’t implemented yet – and that is it at the moment.

“So quite where this is going to go, we don’t know at this stage.

“When I’m thinking about my decision on interest rates, because of the sheer unpredictability it’s not that I’m ignoring the world – anything but.

“But I’m not putting that high a weight on it because, frankly, it is so unpredictable at the moment that, as we saw in the last 24 hours, it can easily change overnight.”

A survey of the labour market in the UK suggests slowing pay growth and a fall in job vacancies, particularly for graduate-level roles.

Reuters cite data from Brightmine and jobs firm Indeed as showing pay growth has now dropped to 3 per cent in the private sector across March, April and May – below the current rate of inflation, which stands at 3.4 per cent.

Roughly one in seven businesses gave raises of below 2.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, job vacancies were down 5 per cent by mid-June compared to the end of March.

Hospitality, tourism and food service jobs saw the biggest decrease in job posts.

A quick look back at the overnight stock markets:

In the US, the S&P 500 ended 1.1 per cent up, with the Nasdaq reaching 1.43 per cent for the day.

That was followed by positivity around Asia, where each of the Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 are all up approaching the close. Only the latter has had a rise of less than 1 per cent.