The latest HMRC property transactions showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis the number of UK residential sales in September came in at 95,980, 4% higher than September 2024 and 1% higher than August 2025.

At the top end, many £2m-plus movers remain in a holding pattern ahead of any possible tax reforms, with calculators in hand to see if a reset in tax could shift the numbers and impact any immediate plans.

Nick Leeming, chairman of Jackson-Stops, said:

Oil prices dipped on Friday morning, ahead of an anticipated output hike by OPEC and its allies (OPEC+).

Brent crude (BZ=F) futures fell 0.2% to $63.75 per barrel at the time of writing, while West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) declined by the same margin to $60.47 a barrel.

OPEC+ is due to meet on Sunday, with reports that the group are set to announce a modest output hike of 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) for December, having decided to increase production in November by the same amount.

ING’s head of commodities strategy Warren Patterson and commodities strategist Ewa Manthey said: “The uncertainty surrounding sanctions on Russia also supports this increase.

“However, the move will only reinforce the bearish outlook for the market, adding to the substantial surplus expected through 2026. Obviously, this is assuming no supply shocks from Russia.”

The US announced sanctions against two of Russia’s biggest oil companies last week, accusing Moscow of a lack of commitment to the peace process to end its war in Ukraine.

The US Treasury announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, which it said were aimed at increasing pressure on Russia’s energy sector and impeding its ability raise revenue to fund the war and support its economy.

Oil prices soared following the announcement, on expectations that this could disrupt and tighten supply in the market. However, prices have since declined slightly, amid overriding concerns about declining demand and oversupply.

Eurozone inflation eased back in October, with growth coming in at 2.1% from 2.2% the month before, according to an early estimate on Friday.

Eurostat’s first estimate for the consumer prices index (CPI) for the bloc showed that food, alcohol and tobacco inflation fell from 3% to 2.5% while energy prices were down 1% during the month, compared with -0.4% in the previous month.

Central bankers have raised concerns about cutting interest rates in recent months while food, energy and services inflation remains high. Services is expected to have the highest annual rate in October at 3.4%, compared with 3.2% in September, while non-energy industrial goods is expected to be 0.6% versus 0.8% in September.

Diego Iscaro, head of European economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:

Netflix (NFLX) shares rose 3% in pre-market trading after the streaming giant announced overnight a 10-for-1 stock split, a move that is unlikely to change the company’s fundamentals but could make its high-priced shares more accessible to retail investors.

Under the new plan, existing shareholders as of 10 November will receive nine additional shares for each share they currently hold. These new shares will be distributed on 14 November, and the stock will begin trading at the post-split price on 17 November.

Netflix, which has seen its stock price surge to over $1,000 per share in recent years, said the decision was designed to “reset the market price of the company’s common stock to a range that will be more accessible to employees who participate in the company’s stock option programme”.

While the split doesn’t affect the company’s overall value, it is seen as a way to make the stock more manageable for both employees and individual investors.

The announcement comes as Netflix’s stock has climbed 42% so far this year.

Cocoa (CC=F) prices have fallen 51% this year after years of surging input costs, offering relief to the global chocolate industry and just in time for Halloween.

According to new analysis from the trading and investing platform eToro, the dip in cocoa prices has helped lift the performance of key confectionery stocks, with a “confectionery basket” consisting of Lindt (LISN.SW), Hershey (HSY), Mondelez (MDLZ), and Nestle (NESN.SW) climbing 14% year-to-date, its strongest performance since 2021.

However, a closer look at the data reveals a more nuanced picture. Over the past year, confectionery stocks are up only 2%, reflecting the lingering effects of last year’s record-high cocoa (CC=F) prices.

Over a three-year period, performance remains broadly flat at +2%, but the five-year data shows an 18% gain, suggesting that chocolate makers have managed to effectively defend margins through one of the most volatile commodity cycles in recent memory.

For instance, in the UK, data from consumer group Which? shows that chocolate prices jumped 14.6% from January to August 2025, highlighting the ongoing pressure on prices despite recent relief on the cocoa (CC=F) front.

Cocoa’s (CC=F) price volatility has been driven by a series of supply-side issues, including harvest failures and export bottlenecks in West Africa, which have led to a 153% surge in the commodity’s price since 2020.

Yet, despite these challenges, chocolate equities have largely managed to maintain their ground, a testament to both the resilience of the sector and consumers’ willingness to continue purchasing, even as prices climbed sharply.

Read the full article here

If you have moved house in the last five years, you could have unclaimed money sitting in your old gas and electricity accounts. According to the regulator Ofgem, around £240m is currently sitting in closed energy accounts which can be returned to customers.

Energy suppliers are obliged to return credit to customers, and the majority of closed account balances are returned automatically. But if their contact details are out of date, this can prove difficult.

Energy UK, which represents suppliers, said people should check letters and emails and contact their old suppliers if they think they have outstanding credit.

Tim Jarvis, director general for retail at Ofgem, said:

The advice from Energy UK is to keep your direct debit active until the final bill has been settled. Any leftover credit should automatically be paid to customers.

Under Ofgem rules, suppliers must issue a final bill within six weeks and issue a refund within 10 working days after that, but Ofgem said missing customer details were causing delays.

Here are the FTSE 100 risers and fallers this morning:

Hensen Huang, boss of Nvidia, has said that Donald Trump will make the final call on whether the company can sell its latest chip in China. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, he said:

He added that China was “simply irreplaceable”, and was disappointed by Nvidia’s fall in market share in the country, though he believed it will continue to grow.

It comes as the US president said on Wednesday that he would discuss Nvidia’s Blackwell artificial intelligence processors with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and previously said that he would consider allowing Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its Blackwell chip in China, which would help it regain its market share in the country.

Nvidia has faced an effective ban on selling its latest hardware to Chinese customers, over fears that China could use it to accelerate AI-driven military developments.

In August, both Nvidia and chipmaker AMD (AMD) agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from advanced chips sold to China in return for export licenses to the market.

Fresnillo (FRES.L) jumped up the FTSE 100 this morning after it announced a deal to buy Canadian exploration company Probe for about £424m in an all-cash deal.

The precious metals miner said the acquisition marked a strategic entry into Canada and the “prolific” Val d’Or Mining camp in Quebec, which has a long-standing history of gold mining and continued production growth.

Shares in the FTSE miner have risen by more than 240% so far this year, making it the best performer across the whole index. It has been boosted by the stellar rise of the price of gold.

Fresnillo, which is listed in London but headquartered in Mexico City, operates gold and silver mines across Mexico.

For the fourth quarter, Apple (AAPL) saw earnings per share (EPS) of $1.85 on revenue of $102.5bn. Wall Street analysts were anticipating EPS of $1.77 on revenue of $102.2bn.

Apple’s iPhone business, its most important, brought in $49.03 billion in revenue, shy of expectations of $49.3bn.

The company’s iPhone 17 lineup includes a number of improvements over the iPhone 16, including design enhancements for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Apple also did away with its iPhone Plus model in favor of the iPhone Air, a new entry into the iPhone family that sports a thinner, lighter design.

Importantly, Apple’s fourth quarter accounts for a small portion of iPhone 17 sales, as the phones were only on sale for a few weeks ahead of the end of the financial period. Still, any revenue impact helps to provide guidance for the year ahead.

Amazon (AMZN) reported its third quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, beating on the top and bottom lines as its cloud business grew faster than expected.

“You’re going to see us continue to be very aggressive in investing in capacity because we see the demand,” CEO Andy Jassy said on the company’s earnings call with analysts.

Amazon stock rose more than 13% following the report.For the quarter, Amazon reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.95 on revenue of $180.2 billion, better than analysts’ expectations of EPS of $1.58 and revenue of $177.8 billion.

Amazon’s AWS brought in $33.01 billion in revenue versus an anticipated $32.4 billion.

The company also said adoption of its Trainium2 AI chip has become a multibillion-dollar business that grew 150% quarter over quarter, and that it launched its Project Rainier AI cluster with 500,000 Trainium 2 chips.

The results come just a day after rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced their own results, with both companies saying they’ll spend more on AI data centrrs going forward.

UK house prices rose modestly in October to £272,226, as the housing market was hit with elevated borrowing costs and subdued consumer sentiment, according to figures by Nationwide Building Society.

The lender said prices increased by 0.3% month on month, following a 0.5% gain in September. On an annual basis, prices were 2.4% higher than a year earlier, up slightly from September’s 2.2% growth.

The figures came in stronger than expected. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast no change in prices on the month and a 2.3% annual increase.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said:

Read more here

Stocks in Asia were mixed overnight, with the Nikkei (^N225) rising 2.1% on the day in Japan as Tokyo’s core CPI increased by 2.8% in October, surpassing expectations (2.6%) and underscoring ongoing inflationary pressures.

Also in Japan, factory output in September rose by 2.2% from the previous month, exceeding market forecasts of a 1.5% increase, while retail sales showed a modest year-on-year rebound of 0.5%, compared to the expected 0.7%, indicating fragile domestic demand.

Additionally, the country’s unemployment rate unexpectedly remained stable at 2.6% in September, with expectations at 2.5%.

The Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.8% in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was also 0.8% down by the end of the session, with China risk lagging on poor PMI data.

The official manufacturing PMI for October was reported at 49.0, compared to the expected 49.6, down from 49.8 in September, and the lowest for 6 months. The non-manufacturing PMI increasing to 50.1 in October as anticipated.

However, the weakness in manufacturing has caused the composite PMI to decline to 50.0 in October from 50.6.

In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 0.5% on the day, helped by gains in semiconductor and AI-related stocks

Across the pond on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 1.6% lower. The Dow Jones (^DJI) lost 0.2%.

It came as traders were digesting the outcome of the meeting between US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping in South Korea. While most agreements had been priced in beforehand, the two leaders agreed to a one-year trade truce until November 2026.

The US will reduce its fentanyl-related tariff from 20% to 10%, and China will remove its 10–15% retaliatory tariffs on various US agricultural products and delay rare earth export controls announced earlier this month.

Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank said:

In the bond market, the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes rose to 4.099% from 4.075% late on Wednesday.

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s moving markets and what’s happening across the global economy.

Looking ahead to today, the main release will be inflation data in Europe, with October CPI due for France, Italy and the Euro area. We’ll also hear from Fed officials Logan, Hammack, and Bostic, while key earnings reports are expected from ExxonMobil, AbbVie, and Chevron.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the agenda:

• 7am: Nationwide House Price Index

• 9.30am: ONS national accounts