Market Live Email
BP to take Q4 impairment charge, Prudential taps Douglas Flint for chairman
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Wednesday 14 Jan 2026
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 14.6 points higher ahead of the bell on Wednesday, after wrapping up the previous session 0.03% softer at 10,137.35.
STOCKS TO WATCH
Energy giant BP said on Wednesday that it expects to take an impairment charge of $4bn to $5bn in the fourth quarter, mainly related to its energy transition businesses. BP stated Q4 group production was expected to be broadly flat compared to the prior quarter, with production broadly flat in oil production and operations, and lower in gas and low carbon energy.
Value-added services provider Diploma said on Wednesday that it had delivered a "very strong Q1 performance", with organic revenues growing 14% during the period. Diploma, which completed four acquisitions for approximately £75m in the three months ended 31 December, maintained its full-year guidance for organic revenue growth at 6% and margins at approximately 22.5%, while also hiking net acquisition growth guidance to 3%.
Blue chip insurer Prudential has named City veteran Douglas Flint as its next chairman. Flint, who spent more than two decades at HSBC, including seven as group chair, will replace current incumbent Shriti Vadera, who will retire. He will join the board in March ahead of formally taking up the role at the annual general meeting at the end of May.
Educational publishing and services group Pearson expects to report 2025 results in line with guidance, with all sides of the business contributing to growth. Pearson said underlying sales were up 4% over the year, with growth picking up to 8% in the fourth quarter from 4% in the third. Meanwhile, underlying adjusted operating profits rose around 6% to £610m-615m, slightly ahead of consensus forecasts of £606m at the time of its last update in October.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Leading US investors and private equity firms could step up their foray into UK new-build housing after Donald Trump's move to ban institutional companies from buying single-family homes in the US, raising concerns that investors could "cut corners and increase rents". The US president said last week that he would ask Congress to codify the measure as he tries to address concerns that families are struggling to buy or rent a home. The median property sale price was $410,800 (£305,000) last year, according to the US Census Bureau. - Guardian
Long-awaited plans for better railways across the north of England have been given government backing with an undertaking to "reverse years of chronic underinvestment" by spending up to £45bn building Northern Powerhouse Rail. Just over £1bn has been allocated to work up a detailed three-stage plan to connect cities from Liverpool to Newcastle, which could fulfil most of the demands of northern leaders, in a series of long-term projects. - Guardian
The BBC has been overtaken by YouTube for the first time, signalling the end of the corporation's near century of dominance of entertainment in Britain. YouTube now attracts a larger audience than all of the BBC's channels combined, according to official ratings agency Barb. Almost 52m people watched YouTube on their televisions, smartphones or laptops in December, compared with the 50.8m Britons who tuned into the BBC. - Telegraph
Elon Musk's X has stopped its artificial intelligence chatbot undressing women in photos after Britain threatened to ban the site. Grok, the AI bot that operates on Mr Musk's social media site X, began ignoring instructions to generate sexualised images of women in swimwear on Tuesday. It also now ignores other requests to put women in sexual poses or explicit scenarios. - Telegraph
As much as £14bn of Rachel Reeves's newly created £22bn fiscal buffer could be wiped out by a series of government U-turns and a big decline in net migration. The chancellor's effort to appease financial markets by more than doubling her fiscal headroom at November's budget may have been in vain because of the government easing tax rises on pubs and farmers along with much lower migration in the coming years, according to calculations by Bloomberg. - The Times
US CLOSE
Financial stocks dragged Wall Street indices lower on Tuesday as sticky inflation data and an underwhelming start to fourth-quarter earnings season prompted investors to book profits following recent gains.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.80% at 49,191.99, while the S&P 500 shed 0.19% to 6,963.74, and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.10% weaker at 23,709.87.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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