London, March 1, 2026, 06:34 GMT — Market closed.
- London stocks reopen on Monday with the FTSE 100 sitting at fresh highs.
- Oil is back in focus after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and an OPEC+ meeting due Sunday.
- A heavy UK earnings week and Friday’s U.S. payrolls report could reshape rate bets.
London stocks open a new week with oil in the driving seat after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, while the FTSE 100 sits at a record close. The London Stock Exchange is shut on Sunday and reopens on Monday.
Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 ended Friday up 0.6% at 10,910.55, its third straight record close, and rose 6.7% over February for an eighth consecutive monthly gain. Miners and defensive shares underpinned the move, while Barclays slid 4.2% on worries over its exposure to collapsed UK lender Market Financial Solutions and IAG sank 7.5% after it withheld profit guidance. Rightmove advanced after beating annual profit expectations and announcing a £90 million share buyback — a plan to repurchase its own shares — while Hays dropped 10% after its chief executive quit and it cut its dividend by 84%; AstraZeneca and Unilever rose 2.9% and 2.0%. Reuters
The weekend brought a new variable: the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Reuters reported, and some oil majors and trading houses paused shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Barclays energy analysts warned Brent could hit $100 a barrel as markets opened, depending on the scale of any supply disruption. A jump in crude tends to help London’s heavyweight energy names, but it squeezes airlines, consumers and central-bank rate-cut bets. Reuters
Oil traders also have OPEC+ on the diary. Eight OPEC+ members were due to meet on Sunday at 1100 GMT and could consider a larger-than-planned increase of 411,000 barrels per day for April output, two sources close to the talks said. Brent hit $73 a barrel on Friday, the highest since July, Reuters data showed. Reuters
That matters for the FTSE because the index has leaned on commodities to outpace many peers, while investors have tried to look past tariff noise and a tech-led wobble elsewhere. An oil shock that lasts could flip the script by keeping inflation sticky and making rate cuts harder to price.
The macro calendar is busy enough. S&P Global’s economists said manufacturing and services PMI surveys — Purchasing Managers’ Index readings that track business activity — will set the tone early in the week, ahead of U.S. nonfarm payrolls on Friday. In the UK diary, S&P Global flagged mortgage lending and approvals on Monday, a construction PMI on Thursday and the Halifax house price index on Friday. SP Global
On the micro side, results season keeps rolling, with Bunzl and Smith & Nephew due on Monday and a heavier batch later in the week including Admiral, Aviva, Reckitt Benckiser, Rentokil, Taylor Wimpey and ITV, according to Hargreaves Lansdown. Matt Britzman and Aarin Chiekrie at the broker said Admiral’s outlook matters more than its expected 11% profit growth for 2025, and wrote that fears of AI-driven disruption are “overstated”. They also pencilled Greggs’ full-year pre-tax profit at about £173 million and noted Taylor Wimpey’s 2025 revenue around £3.8 billion with operating profit near £420 million. Hargreaves Lansdown
London’s financials will be a watch, too. Barclays’ slide on Friday puts a spotlight on how far the Market Financial Solutions fallout travels across the City, and whether other lenders or brokers have to mark down exposures.
But there is room for a sharp reversal. If crude gaps higher and stays there, airlines like IAG could take another hit, and the market may start to question whether lower rates arrive as quickly as traders hoped. A downside payroll surprise in the United States would add to that by pushing bond yields around.
The week’s hard stop is Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for February, a release that often resets global rate expectations heading into the next week’s trading. kiplinger.com
