Finance, in brief

The euro fell as low as $1.1161 on Monday, its weakest against the US dollar since May 2025, after four losing weeks in a row. [1][2] It has lost about eight cents since a peak of $1.20 in January. [3]

The main worry is France. Lenders now want 1.45 percentage points a year more to lend to France for ten years than to Germany, up from 0.55 in mid-September. [4] The gap briefly passed 1.5 points on Monday. [5]

That gap rose by 0.34 points last week, its biggest weekly jump in 17 years. [1] France's own ten-year borrowing rate is close to 5%. [2][6]

France's debt is close to 120% of what its economy makes in a year, Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, told a French newspaper. [2] France also plans to sell a record amount of new bonds next year. [6]

Roland Lescure, France's finance minister, presented a 2027 budget last week that aims to cut the yearly shortfall from 5.4% to 5% of the economy. [2][7] Economists at Barclays, a British bank, said France is unlikely to hit that target. [7]

Investors also fear France's presidential election in April 2027. [1][8] Marine Le Pen of the far right leads the polls. [8] Her party wants to lower the age at which people can draw a pension. [9] Jean-Luc Melenchon of the far left has suggested the Bank of France cancel the roughly 18% of French debt it holds. [8]

On Monday Pedro Sanchez, Spain's prime minister, called an election for 29 November, months early. [10][11] Last week parliament threw out his emergency measures on housing, after protests over rents and evictions. [11][2] Spain's own ten-year rate barely moved, at about 4.08%. [2]

Borrowing rates also rose in Italy, Belgium and Greece. [4][2] Italy's ten-year rate reached 4.74%, up 0.18 points in a week. [6]

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, one of Japan's biggest fund managers, said it had sold all its French government bonds. [4] More than half of France's debt is held by foreign investors, who tend to leave faster than local ones. [4]

Money moved into German bonds and the US dollar. [1] The dollar index, which compares the dollar with six big currencies, reached an 18-month high. [12] France's main share index fell 1% on Monday, while Germany's was flat. [3]

A weaker euro makes oil and gas, which are priced in dollars, cost more in Europe, an economist at Oxford Economics told DW. [13] Prices in the countries that use the euro were already rising 3.8% a year in September. [2]

Emmanuel Moulin, governor of the Bank of France, said everything must be done to avoid a debt crisis before the 2027 vote. [4] Anthony Gutman of Goldman Sachs, a big US bank, said governments need smaller deficits and stronger growth to bring borrowing costs down. [14]

Why it matters. Watch whether the gap between French and German ten-year rates keeps widening from 1.45 points, and whether the European Central Bank says it would use its bond-buying backstop, which it has never used. [4][2]

The Nasdaq, an index of mostly technology shares, closed at a record on Monday, up about 1%. [25] The S&P 500, an index of 500 big US companies, ended 0.3% below its own record. [25] On the same day the US government's ten-year borrowing rate closed at 5.31%, its highest since April 2002. [15][26] Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta led the gains, and Nvidia closed at a record for the first time since May. [25] The US Treasury sells more bonds at auctions later this week. [26]

Why it matters. Higher rates usually weigh on share prices, and shares of steady payers such as power companies were weak on Monday. [25] Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta made up nearly 17% of the S&P 500 going into the week, so they can lift the index while many other shares lag. [25]

The average five-year fixed mortgage in Britain reached 6.00% on Monday, its highest since September 2023, by the count of Moneyfacts, a data firm. [16] The two-year average is 5.98%. [16] Only nine fixed deals now cost less than 5%, against 1,494 at the start of September. [16] The Bank of England has not changed its main rate since December. [16] Lenders raised prices because the market rates they borrow at jumped with the global bond sell-off. [16]

Why it matters. A £250,000 five-year loan at 6% costs £158 a month more than one fixed at February's average of 4.94%. [16] Families whose old fixed deals end now face the higher rate, and Nationwide, a big lender, said house prices rose half as fast in September. [16]

Schneider Electric, a French company that makes power and cooling equipment for data centres, agreed on Monday to buy PTC, a US software company, for about $22.6 billion. [27] It will pay $205 in cash for each PTC share, 42.3% more than the shares last traded at. [28] PTC makes software used to design, build and service products. [27] Schneider plans to borrow up to 17 billion euros and sell up to 6 billion euros of new shares to pay for it. [28]

Why it matters. Schneider's shares fell nearly 10% in Paris, wiping about 15 billion euros off its value, while PTC's rose about a third. [27][26] Jefferies, an investment bank, said fears that AI will undercut software firms let Schneider buy PTC more cheaply than at any time in ten years. [27]

C.H. Robinson, a big US firm that arranges trucks and shipping for other companies, agreed on Monday to buy RXO, a truck broker, for about $5.8 billion in cash and shares. [29] RXO's owners get $17.25 in cash and part of a C.H. Robinson share for each RXO share, 29% more than RXO's shares closed at on Friday. [29] The combined company would be worth more than $25 billion including debt. [30] The deal needs regulators' approval and should close in the first half of 2027. [30]

Why it matters. RXO's shares jumped about 20% before trading opened, while C.H. Robinson's fell almost 12%. [29] The buyer expects $300 million a year in cost savings within two years. [29]

BT, Britain's biggest broadband provider, agreed to buy TalkTalk, the fourth-biggest, out of administration in a £400m rescue that saves 900 jobs. [19] Administration is the British process in which outside managers run a company that cannot pay its debts. TalkTalk took on about £1.5bn of debt when it left the stock market in 2021, and its lenders had in effect controlled it since. [19][31] Its home customers fell from 4 million in 2019 to about 1.5 million. [19]

Why it matters. About 250,000 TalkTalk customers are vulnerable, and many rely on alarm pendants that call for help in an emergency. [19] Virgin Media O2, a rival, called the deal a stitch-up that strengthens BT's grip, and the British government has ordered a public-interest review. [19]

Sainsbury's, Britain's second-biggest supermarket, held early talks this year about merging with Morrisons, the Financial Times and Sky reported. [21] The two are no longer in talks, by those reports. [21] Morrisons was bought by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a US private equity firm, in 2021, and has carried more than £7bn of debt since. [21] Together they would hold 23.6% of the market, against 27.8% for Tesco, the biggest. [21]

Why it matters. Britain's competition regulator blocked a Sainsbury's and Asda deal in 2019 because it expected higher prices for shoppers. [21] Lidl, a German discount chain, overtook Morrisons this year and reported a 10% rise in British sales on Monday. [21]

Brazil's main share index rose 8% on Monday. [17][32] On Sunday Flavio Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator and son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, won 47% in the first round of the presidential election. [17] President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won about 45%, and the two meet in a runoff on 25 October. [17] The real, Brazil's currency, strengthened from 5.22 to 4.98 to the US dollar. [17] Shares in Banco Bradesco, a big bank, jumped 19%. [32]

Why it matters. Investors expect Bolsonaro to cut spending, which could let Brazil lower some of the highest interest rates in the world. [33] Brazil's government deficit was almost 10% of its economy in June. [32]

Iran's oil minister, Mohsen Paknejad, resigned on Monday, giving personal reasons. [24][34] Days earlier a newspaper reported that a trust set up under him to collect money from oil sold abroad owed the state oil company nearly $2bn. [24] A US naval blockade has stopped most of Iran's oil sales. [24] The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said Iran loaded no crude onto tankers in September. [34] A US dollar now costs a record 270,000 tomans on Iran's street market, double what it cost in January. [34]

Why it matters. Prices in Iran are rising 85% a year, and food prices 130%. [24] The monthly minimum wage is worth about $66, and nurses and teachers are quitting because their pay cannot keep up. [24]

Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state oil company, said on Monday that rebuilding the world's oil stocks could take up to two years. [22] He said nearly 3 billion barrels of supply have been lost since the war with Iran began in late February. [22] About 1 billion barrels have been drawn from stocks, mostly from companies' own tanks. [22] Brent crude, the world's main oil price, was near $102 a barrel on Monday morning. [22]

Why it matters. Nasser said the oil system is already straining, and the pressure will last until the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens. [22] Governments in the G7 group of rich democracies agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude. [22]

Officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, part of the US central bank, have visited four big banks since spring, Semafor reported. [35] They reviewed what JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Barclays and Morgan Stanley have lent to private-credit firms. [35] Private-credit firms are funds that lend straight to companies instead of through banks. Bank loans to such lenders rose from $300 billion in 2016 to more than $1.5 trillion, 11% of all bank loans. [35] The review followed JPMorgan marking down loans to software companies threatened by AI in March. [35]

Why it matters. The banks and the US central bank declined to comment, so what the visits found is not public. [35] The World Bank said on Tuesday that $800 billion of planned AI building is expected to be paid for with private credit. [36]

Pablo Hernandez de Cos said in Vienna on Monday that high government debt will make the next financial crisis harder to handle. [37] He runs the Bank for International Settlements, a bank for the world's central banks. [37] Public debt is near its highest since the Second World War in many countries. [37] He said that when governments borrow a lot, a central bank buying bonds to calm a market can look like it is paying that government's bills. [37] He is one of the favourites to lead the European Central Bank next year. [37]

Why it matters. His warning came as lenders charged France far more than Germany. [37] He named the Bank of England's short, limited bond-buying in 2022 as a model for how to step in. [37]

The World Bank raised its growth forecast for East Asia and the Pacific this year to 4.5%, from 4.2% in April. [36] Goods linked to AI, such as chips and servers, drove more than half of export growth in most of the region's economies. [36] Vietnam got the biggest upgrade, to 7.4%. [36] South Korea's exports grew 83.5% in September to a record $120.9 billion, and half of them were chips. [36]

Why it matters. The bank warned that trade outside AI goods is weak or shrinking, so a pullback in AI spending would hit the region hard. [36] Two chipmakers, Samsung and SK Hynix, made up 43% of the value of South Korea's main share index in April. [36]

Hong Kong imported a record 112.7 tonnes of Russian gold in the first seven months of 2026, by the count of BullionVault, a gold trading firm. [38] That is more than the 92.1 tonnes in all of 2025, and far above 3.3 tonnes in 2021. [38] Western countries shut Russian gold out of London's market after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. [38] Most of the gold goes on to mainland China, which has no sanctions on it. [38]

Why it matters. Russia still sells its gold, now through Hong Kong to China instead of London. [38] China's central bank added more than 40 tonnes to its own gold in the first half of 2026, more than double a year earlier. [38]

SpaceX shares rose almost 8% on Monday to $171.09, their highest since mid-June. [39] SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company, first sold shares to the public on 12 June. [39] Analysts at Morgan Stanley, a US bank, called the shares cheap in a note on Sunday. [39] Forbes now values Musk at about $1.05 trillion, mostly from his SpaceX and Tesla shares. [40]

Why it matters. Musk's wealth peaked at $1.32 trillion on 16 June, by Bloomberg's count, so it rises and falls with those shares. [40] The next two richest people, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page, are worth $371 billion and $284 billion. [40]

Glasgow City Council reached a pay deal with Unison, a trade union, on Monday. [41] Last month the council had told all 23,000 of its non-teaching staff that they could be dismissed and rehired on new terms. [41] The first offer would have cut pay for 11% of staff, and the council has now agreed to protect their pay for three years. [41] Unison will put the deal to a four-week vote of its members. [41]

Why it matters. The new pay system is meant to end years of unequal pay at the council. [41] Two other unions, GMB and Unite, are also putting it to their members. [41]

Coach operators in Britain warned on Monday that record diesel prices could force cuts to services, including school transport. [23] Diesel at British fuel stations passed £2 a litre last week, a record. [23] Hauliers, the firms that run lorries, say each truck now costs an extra £350 a week in fuel compared with before the Iran war. [23] Local buses in England get help with fuel from the British government, but coaches do not. [23]

Why it matters. Haulage firms usually make about 2% profit on their sales, so most cannot carry a rise this big, and hundreds have gone bust this year, the Road Haulage Association said. [23]

Britain's government is reviewing whether to put import taxes on Chinese cars to match the European Union, which charges up to 45%. [42] The EU raised the question in talks on its Made in Europe law, which Britain wants to join. [42] Chinese brands such as BYD, Leapmotor and Jaecoo have more than tripled their share of new car sales in Britain this year, to 12%. [42] BYD alone took 5.75% of the market in September. [42]

Why it matters. Tariffs would make Chinese cars dearer for British buyers and could bring a hostile response from China. [42] Being left out of the EU law could hurt an 80 billion euro car trade with Europe, the British carmakers' trade body warned. [42]

True Food Kitchen, a US restaurant chain that sells health-focused food, filed for bankruptcy protection in a Texas court on Sunday. [20] It owes about $42 million and closed 12 restaurants the same day, leaving 34 in 14 states. [20] The talk-show host Oprah Winfrey has been an investor since 2018. [20] The company blamed frequent changes of managers and spending on new ideas outside its main menu. [20]

Why it matters. It is seeking a sale under a court's watch, and its remaining restaurants stay open. [20]

Lucid Group, a US maker of electric cars backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, delivered 3,806 cars from July to September, 6.7% fewer than a year earlier. [43] It built 2,954, after cutting its Arizona plant from two shifts to one. [43] Its new chief executive, Silvio Napoli, started in June. [43] Its shares are down more than 60% this year, at $4.17. [43]

Why it matters. Lucid cut production to match slower demand for electric cars. [43] General Motors said on Monday it will bring hybrid cars to the US, as sales of hybrids grow with petrol dear and fully electric cars losing buyers. [44]

The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear Zillow's appeal against a class action, a lawsuit brought on behalf of a whole group of investors. [45] The investors say Zillow, a US property website, misled them about its home-flipping arm before closing it in November 2021. [45] Zillow wrote down $300 million in losses then and cut 25% of its staff. [45] The case can now go to trial. [45]

Why it matters. Business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce had argued that the lower court's ruling exposes companies to costly lawsuits from investors. [45]

A court-appointed privacy official recommended on Monday that a judge approve Google's $10 million purchase of data from Spirit Airlines, a US budget airline that shut down in May. [46] Google won an auction for the data and says it will use it to improve its products and AI models. [46] The companies removed passenger databases from the sale and hired an outside firm to strip out personal details. [46] A court hearing is set for 14 October. [46]

Why it matters. Spirit's pilots and flight attendants object to the sale. [46] The data came from 97 million customers who gave it to book flights. [46]

Starbucks has opened two shops in Urumqi, in China's Xinjiang region. [47] Western governments accuse China of serious rights abuses in Xinjiang, and the US limits imports from there over forced labour. [47] Starbucks sold 60% of its China business to Boyu Capital, a Hong Kong private-equity firm, in April. [47] Boyu wants to grow from about 8,000 shops to as many as 20,000. [47]

Why it matters. A US congressional committee on China demanded that the shops close, and China's foreign ministry rejected the criticism. [47] One analyst told CNBC that Boyu weighed the anger in the US and decided growth in China mattered more. [47]

OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange, launched an app on Tuesday that turns more than 50 local currencies into stablecoins, digital tokens meant to stay worth one US dollar. [48] It is aimed at Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. [48] OKX offers up to 10% a year on one of the coins, USDG. [48] About 97% of all stablecoin value is tied to the US dollar. [48]

Why it matters. OKX says currency swings and exchange fees make it hard for people in those regions to protect their savings. [48] Crypto platforms have lost about $2.7 billion to hacks this year, by the count of CertiK, a security firm. [48]