Business news live: Business news live: Bonds yield concern remains after Rachel Reeves backed by Starmer, Microsoft cut 4% of staff in AI push

Yesterday’s gilt sell-off send the yield spiralling, giving quick fears over borrowing costs on the UK government’s multi-trillion debt.

However, that yield is on the way back down again.

It’s not quite to the same level as it was 24 hours ago, we should note, but it’s down to 4.54 per cent.

Yesterday’s spike reached as high as 4.67 per cent, having been around 4.49 per cent at about 11am.

It’s the market to keep a close eye on today.

A report from HSBC says UK AI startups were handed $2.4bn by venture capital funding in the first half of this year.

That figure was almost a third (30 per cent) of all UK VC raised – the highest share on record.

Across the board, startups raised more than $8bn in the first half of the year.

In terms of sectors, health and fintech were the leaders in drawing investment.

Electricals retailer Currys has posted its final results this morning, announcing a profit of £162m to the year ended in April.

Notably, for the first time since 2023 it will also pay a dividend, of 1.5p per share.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “This looks like a very solid update from Currys, and one that will help support the shares after the 25 per cent gain so far this year. The dividend has made a return, and performance looks good across the broad range of the business. At 7 times earnings, the shares look cheap compared to the more positive outlook, which is rare thing to say in UK stocks right now.”

The pharmaceutical firm however is far bigger by market capitalisation, currently worth just over £161bn – more than BP, National Grid and Lloyds Bank combined.

The Independent understands the company acknowledges the CEO’s concerns as being longstanding, especially regarding new products, while conversations are ongoing with the UK government over support for the wider pharmaceutical industry, particularly when it comes to supporting the commercial environment to become a global superpower in the sector.

Microsoft are cutting 9,000 jobs, 4 per cent of its workforce, with job cuts to come in areas including Xbox and mobile game studio divisions.

There were cutbacks of around 6,000 redundancies in May.

It comes after senior bosses told staff to ensure AI was being more widely used for tasks, saying it was “no longer optional”.

We’ll dive back into the latest data shortly, but first an explanation of yesterday’s bond market turbulence.

After Keir Starmer didn’t give a firm answer that chancellor Rachel Reeves would stay in her job, investors reacted by selling off 10-year government bonds.

That send the prices down and the yields therefore up, before stabilising more than 3.5 per cent higher for the day after Labour released a statement saying Ms Reeves was going “nowhere”.

It was the fastest rise in 10-year gilts since 2022 and Liz Truss’ mini budget farce.

UK firms are signalling growth might be off the cards for most and confidence about what lies ahead is evaporating.

A report from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) highlighted the precarious nature of the situation.

“UK businesses are rattled, with less than half expecting to see their turnover grow in the next year, according to the BCC. Weak confidence means businesses are likely to be battening down the hatches, and that doesn’t bode well for economic growth. The tax burden appears to be high on the list of concerns for businesses, which is only to be expected after the big national insurance hike they’ve had to swallow,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

“The problem is the chancellor is likely to be coming back for another tax raid this autumn, albeit unlikely to be at the same scale as 2024. Given that businesses have already done a lot of heavy lifting, it seems more likely the tax hammer will fall elsewhere. But even if consumers get saddled with tax rises, that limits their discretionary spending and still spells trouble for UK businesses.”

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s regular rolling coverage across the worlds of business and finance.

Today there’s a big old list to look through early on:

Stock markets, bond yields, Trump tariffs, business confidence and more.