- climbs 23 points to 8,529
- Housing markets starts 2025 with a bang, says Rightmove (LON:)
- hits new high
- US markets closed later on Trump’s inauguration day
8.56am: Bitcoin surges to new high
Bitcoin has surged to a new high in the past couple of hours, with and also on the up, along with the #MELANIA meme-coin.
BTC has climbed above $108K, a 3.6% gain over 24 hours, after falling below $100K overnight.
Some thoughts from market analyst Kyle Rodda at Capital.com.
“A reportedly positive phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping sparked a fresh rally on Wall Street, along with European indices, with several of the latter hitting record highs.
“Bitcoin also surged and prices appear to be breaking-out after a period of consolidation.
“The price action reveals one of the major headwinds to global equities: Trump’s trade-wars and tariffs, especially on China. It’s particularly telling that Asian indices ought to open firmer today because of the news, having barely moved after much stronger than expected Chinese growth data on Friday.
“Combined with diminished fears about stickier and even re-accelerating inflation, the amicable call between Trump and Xi, while only a temporary reprieve amidst irrevocable strategic competition, is extra fuel to reignite bullishness in equities.”
In a note last week, Deutsche Bank (ETR:) noted that the cryptocurrency market, particularly Bitcoin, “exhibited remarkable dynamics” in the final quarter of 2024. with Bitcoin prices increasing 120% over the year 2024 and 33% since the November Trump victory.
Last week saw what it called “a notable cooling period,” with prices retreating to $90,000 at the start of the week, marking a 17.5% decline from the peak, while the previous week US spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced their second-largest outflow since their inception, with investors withdrawing a net $583mn on a single day.
9.44am: TikTok US lives
From memes to social media, especially for those who like me like to switch off from financial news over the weekend and those looking for their morning short video hit.
TikTok’s US users have breathed a sigh of relief after the US President-elect announced plans to issue an executive order delaying a recently enacted ban on the app.
The ruling, upheld by the Supreme Court last week, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance to sell its US operations or be shut down over national security concerns.
The Biden administration decided not to enforce the ban in its final hours, meaning TikTok went offline Saturday evening.
But Trump’s intervention came on Sunday morning, leading to the app’s swift restoration.
8.33am: Trumps issue commemorative meme-coins
Stock markets are quiet, but the action is rarely subdued in the world of crypto.
Making another foray into the world of digital currencies, Donald Trump has been joined by his wife in taking presidential commemorative coins into a new dimension.
It used to be that a long-serving or outstanding former leader of the free world would see their likeness minted in gold to commemorate their tenure, normally after leaving office.
But over the weekend, the Trumps decided to dispense with these formalities ahead of the Donald’s inauguration, with the President-elect’s $Trump meme coin issued and returning first lady Melania launching her own, $Melania, to boot.
Can you guess how their prices have done so far? (Trump memecoin here, Melania memecoin here if you care.)
Bitcoin has also been on the rise, more on that soon.
8.12am: FTSE starts higher
The FTSE 100 has climbed higher in initial trading on Monday, though not breached the intra-day highs seen at previous session.
It made an early gain of eight points to reach 8,513.2. Last Friday, the London index topped out at 8,533 at one point.
Top early risers are Fresnillio PLC, the precious metals miner, up 2.4%, followed by National Grid (LON:) PLC, some retailers and financials.
7.43am: Reach for some spare cash
In company news, Reach PLC (LON:), the owner of daily newspapers including the Mirror, Express and swathes of regional clickbait websites, has put out a mixed update.
On the bad side, it will have to shell out £5 million after a “historical error” was discovered in a pension scheme that was taken over as part of the Express acquisition in 2018.
But on the other side of the coin, Reach reported that the last few months of 2024 were “strong” and it expects to “deliver results ahead of current market expectations for the full year”…read more
7.27am: House prices start 2025 with a bang
More on those UK house prices.
New seller asking prices bounced back from the usual seasonal fall in December to start 2025 with new sellers active in recent weeks.
A record number of new houses came to market on Boxing Day itself and since, says Rightmove, with an 11% increase in the number of new properties coming to market compared to the same period at the start of last year.
Also, the average number of homes for sale per estate agency branch is currently at the highest for this time of year in 10 years, though average asking prices are still almost £9K below May 2024’s peak.
The house-buying website said there seems to be pent-up demand to move, with more choice for buyers contributing to increases in buyer enquiries and sales agreed compared to a year ago.
This has also resulted in elevated competition between sellers to attract buyers, with Rightmove saying some sellers “may find that they have been too optimistic on their initial pricing”.
“New sellers have started the year with a bang,” says Colleen Babcock (LON:), Rightmove property expert, adding that given the higher-than-anticipated seller competition she expects the strong start on pricing “to slow down over the next few months”.
“With lots of homes for buyers to consider, sellers will need to work even harder to stand out from the crowd and attract a buyer.”
7.16am: FTSE seen retreating
The FTSE 100 is expected to step back on Monday morning and admire its record high from last week, and then later to watch what new directives are issued following the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump as US president.
Futures markets have called London’s blue-chip index 21 points lower, after it added 113 points or 1.35% to finish last week at an all-time closing high of 8,505.1, adding 257 or 3.1% over the whole week.
In Asian markets this morning there seems to be a positive mood from the pre-inauguration talks between Trump and China’s President Xi at the end of last week.
The is up 2.3% and the 0.5%, while elsewhere the is up 1.3% and ASX up 0.5%.
US stock markets are on holiday today, but later in the week will be busy studying the numbers from 40 companies from the S&P 500 reporting earnings.
Back in the UK, average house price data for new homes coming to market showed a 1.7% rise this month to £366,189, according to Rightmove, the largest monthly jump in prices at the start of the year since 2020.
5am: What to watch on Monday:
Monday will see Donald Trump’s inauguration in focus as the president-elect returns to the White House for a second term.
Eyes will be on any rapid executive orders, after Trump has signalled plans for the likes of sweeping tariffs and energy sector deregulation.
Announcements due:
Trading updates: Midwich Group PLC
AGMs: B&M European Value Retail SA
US MARKETS CLOSED
