Bank results, dear gilts and a long wait for the Fed

Banks lead the results

HSBC opened this round of bank results on Tuesday. Pre-tax profit for the third quarter rose 32 per cent, and the lender announced a $1bn share buyback. The shares fell 5.6 per cent all the same. The Wall Street Journal's account explained the gap: profit growth had missed expectations.

The same figures carried a domestic edge. HSBC cut its forecasts for UK growth, according to This is Money, and the size of the profits prompted fresh calls for a windfall tax, with left-wing demands for a raid on the banks mounting before the Budget. Sky News reported that a higher bank tax was expected in the Budget itself.

Standard Chartered fared differently on Wednesday. Its shares jumped 8 per cent after third-quarter earnings beat forecasts. The South China Morning Post credited the wealth business. The Journal reported a jump in quarterly net profit and raised income guidance. UBS followed within hours, with profit climbing as inflows to wealth management increased. Two of the three lenders, then, pointed to wealthy clients as the source of strength.

Away from banking, the results were mixed. Mercedes-Benz cut its 2026 profit outlook amid struggles in the Chinese market, Euronews reported. In Hong Kong, the drug maker Hengrui surged after an 89 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit that beat estimates. Shares in Besi, the Dutch chip firm, jumped after Applied Materials moved to double its stake.

Britain borrows dear before the Budget

The bond market set the tone. Britain paid the most to borrow since 2008 on Tuesday, This is Money reported, under a headline describing the bond markets as putting Healey on notice. City A.M. reported that the government had issued debt at the highest interest rate since the financial crisis. Both pieces tied the move directly to the eve of the Budget.

The Budget falls today.

Prices on the high street formed part of the backdrop. UK shop price inflation reached its highest since 2024, according to the Guardian, as retailers struggled to limit rises. The same paper reported that homes across the UK are to get low- or no-interest loans to fund solar panels and heat pumps. A separate Oxfam report, also covered by the Guardian, found that the super-rich draw a 'double dividend' from both the causes and the costs of the climate crisis.

The Bank of England, meanwhile, found that British banks were vulnerable after outsourcing artificial intelligence to US technology giants, City A.M. reported. HSBC's reduced UK growth forecasts arrived in the same 24 hours.

Across the Atlantic the shape is similar and the scale larger. A CNBC analysis described a $2tn deficit and 5 per cent Treasury yields as becoming America's biggest economic challenge.

Waiting on the Fed, reading Anthropic

In New York, US stocks added to gains on Tuesday ahead of further earnings and the Federal Reserve's statement. A CNBC survey found that rate rises are coming, but not this week. The waiting showed elsewhere too. Gold clung to gains above $4,000, and the Singapore dollar held steady as investors awaited the decision.

The longest reading of the week belongs to Anthropic. Its stock market filing, which the Guardian called potentially record-breaking, drew coverage from Monday evening onwards. The BBC listed five surprising things now known about the listing. The Journal argued that the company's 'adjusted' profit exposed Wall Street's earnings game. City A.M. picked out the risks disclosed in the pitch, among them blackmail, deception and extinction. The South China Morning Post examined how China 'risk factors' loom over the filing.

Listings were shifting in other ways. General Motors is moving its stock listing to Nasdaq from the NYSE. Janus launched the first tokenised fund licensing the Nasdaq-100 index, and the Journal separately profiled funds that thrive on investors' impatience. In Hong Kong, the market faces a fundraising test after a fourth IPO was pulled since midyear.

Brazil saw its currency and stock market tumble after what This is Money called an election 'tsunami'.