Restaurants are warning of “devastating “ job losses following Rachel Reeves’s £25 billion tax raid in her autumn budget. Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is letting go of 500 managers. And the latest data shows that the UK economy contracted in May.
Yet against this backdrop, the FTSE 100 index has reached record highs, breaching the 9,000 level for the first time in its 40-year history.
President Trump hammered stock markets globally with his “liberation day” tariffs in April, wiping almost 1,000 points from the FTSE 100 in the space of a week to take it to about 7,600.
Investors were concerned that Trump was upending decades of free trade — although he later agreed to delays, earning him the sobriquet “Taco” (“Trump Always Chickens Out”).
Since that plunge in April, the FTSE 100 has been on an upward trajectory, breaking through the 9,000 barrier for the first time on Tuesday — although it ended the week just below…
