Yahoo Finance FTSE lower and US stocks up as Sunak pledges tax cut
How major markets are performing on Monday
UK stocks remained in the red on Monday afternoon and equities across Europe were mixed following remarks by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that now is the time to cut tax.
Speaking ahead of the autumn statement on Wednesday, where a raft of economic policy announcements will be trotted out, Sunak said taxes would be reduced in "a responsible way" due to the fact his target of halving inflation had been met.
The government is moving to the "next phase" of its plan to grow the economy, he added, while declining to say specifically which taxes would be cut.
The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) fell 0.1% by afternoon in London by the close, with Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) dropping 0.1% and France's CAC (^FCHI) rising 0.2%.
Elsewhere, business was abuzz with talk of AI following an eventful weekend for OpenAI founder Sam Altman, as news eked out the tech chief has landed a job at Microsoft (MSFT).
Over the weekend, the board of OpenAI — the company that created ChatGPT — ousted Altman as CEO, saying the founder "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board". It was rumoured Altman would return to his position after he posted a photo wearing an OpenAI guest pass on social media, but that wasn't to be.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, said on Monday that Altman will join his company instead to lead a new AI research team — a number of OpenAI employees have pledged to follow him.
OpenAI named Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear as its interim chief executive. Microsoft stock was up as much as 2.2% in premarket trade, before opening 1.8% higher in the US.
US stocks rose heading into Thanksgiving week, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC) up 0.3%, the Dow (^DJI) rising 0.4% and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) gaining 0.8% by the closing bell in London
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Data this morning showed German producer prices down 11% — but policy decisions remain unchanged.
"It would be unwise to start cutting interest rates too soon," Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Friday. "We must not loosen policy until we are absolutely certain of returning to price stability on a lasting basis."
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Watch: No immediate return to OpenAI for Sam Altman as he lands Microsoft job
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