Business news live – Pound climbs against the dollar, UK manufacturing falls

The City is cheering new FTSE 100 highs today, as the benchmark index topped 9,400 points for the first time ever.

After rising 0.7 per cent this morning, it’s currently around 9,414 points.

The highest risers include pharma trio AstraZeneca (up 6.1%), Hikma (3.6%) and GSK (2.5%).

“AstraZeneca, Hikma and GSK rallied after Donald Trump announced plans to launch a government-run website for consumers to buy drugs directly from manufacturers. It looks like investors are regaining confidence in the pharma sector following recent uncertainty around pricing and tariffs. More clarity on both points is helping to regain investors’ interest,” explained Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

The US government is now in shutdown, with the two parties not managing to agree a funding plan.

While stock markets have generally not reacted too much to this outcome – futures show the S&P 500 down about 0.5 per cent – the dollar has weakened further.

That means you are right now getting more for your money if you are heading to the US.

£1 is now $1.3465, up almost 0.2 per cent today.

It was slightly higher earlier and we can expect a little more movement across the day.

At the start of the year it was $1.2521 – it’s up more than 7.3 per cent since then.

Business confidence slumped to its lowest level on record last month amid concerns over soaring costs, according to a new survey of company bosses.

Data from the Institute of Directors (IoD) showed that firms said higher labour costs has been the biggest contributor to growing pessimism about the economy.

The industry group’s monthly economic confidence index, which measures business leader optimism about the prospects of the UK economy, posted a minus 74 reading for September.

It marked a significant decline from minus 61 and struck the lowest level since the index was launched more than nine years ago.

The latest data on UK manufacturing PMI from S&P shows a September slowdown, hot on the heels of ONS’ data showing the sector fell in the second three months of the year.

Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “The final Manufacturing PMI results provide further worrying news for the health of UK industry.”

Commenting on what it might mean going forward, Mike Thornton, head of industrials at RSM UK, said: “The latest fall in manufacturing activity in September was another blow for the sector, showing a continued downward trend rather than a seasonal dip in August.

“The output index has dropped to 45.7, the lowest level since March, signalling a sharp slowdown in production levels as weak demand, falling new orders and subdued export activity continue to weigh heavily on the sector.

“This sustained contraction suggests manufacturers are scaling back operations to mitigate deteriorating market conditions, with little sign of a rebound in the short term. Businesses should therefore expect a stagnant outlook for the remainder of the year.”

Morning all, new economic data this week continues to paint a general picture of slow, perhaps grudging, growth in multiple areas – but not manufacturing.

We saw in GDP data that it had been hit in the second quarter and more numbers today back that up.