London, January 28, 2026, 11:04 GMT — Regular session.
- FTSE 100 down 0.3% at 10,177.85 as a weaker dollar and firmer pound weigh on overseas earners
- Gold hits a fresh record above $5,300; miners firm, but Marston’s slides on flat 17-week sales
- Traders await the Fed decision later Wednesday, with the Bank of England’s Feb. 5 meeting also on the radar
Britain’s FTSE 100 turned lower on Wednesday, down 0.3% at 10,177.85, as dollar weakness pushed up sterling and pressured big overseas earners. GSK fell 2% and Experian slipped, while gold miner Endeavour Mining rose 3% and BP and Shell gained about 1%.
The dip follows Tuesday’s 0.6% gain, when a rally in heavyweight bank stocks pushed the banking index to its highest level since May 2008. Traders have shifted quickly from “banks and earnings” to “currencies and the Fed”, with London’s mix of miners, oil majors and multinationals unusually sensitive to both. Reuters
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s first policy meeting of the year ends later on Wednesday, with little expectation of an immediate rate cut. Reuters columnist Mike Dolan wrote the bigger test could be how Chair Jerome Powell talks about the path for rates amid intensifying political pressure on the central bank.
Sterling hit a 4-1/2-year high and the euro briefly pushed above $1.20 as the dollar steadied but remained near four-year lows, Reuters reported. “It shows there’s a crisis of confidence in the U.S. dollar,” Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said. Reuters
Gold’s run fed into London’s resource-heavy tone, with spot prices touching a record $5,311.31 an ounce and around $5,275 by 0940 GMT. “Confidence in the global monetary-fiscal order is shifting,” Linh Tran, a market analyst at XS.com, said. Reuters
Oil stayed close to a four-month high after a winter storm disrupted U.S. production and exports, even as prices eased. Brent was down 0.6% at $67.18 a barrel by 1017 GMT, while U.S. WTI was at $62.17; OPEC+ is expected to keep its pause on output increases for March at a Feb. 1 meeting, two delegates told Reuters.
Across the region, luxury shares were a drag after LVMH fell about 7% following results, pulling European stocks lower. Morningstar senior equity analyst Jelena Sokolova said the recovery was “not getting further delayed and potentially risks are slowly easing”. Reuters
In London’s mid-caps, Marston’s fell as much as 16% after it said like-for-like sales — a measure that strips out the impact of openings and closures — rose 4% in the festive period, but were flat over the full 17 weeks to Jan. 24. JPMorgan analysts said the subdued top-line could weigh on the stock, noting it lagged Mitchells & Butlers, while Marston’s said it was confident of meeting underlying pretax profit expectations of 78.7 million pounds.
Banks stayed in focus after HSBC briefly lifted its market value above $300 billion on Tuesday, putting it close to AstraZeneca for the top spot in the FTSE 100. Reuters reported lenders including NatWest are set to follow European peers in raising profit targets when they report earnings in the coming weeks.
Closer to home, economists polled by Reuters expect the Bank of England to hold Bank Rate at 3.75% on Feb. 5, when it will publish updated quarterly forecasts. Deutsche Bank’s chief UK economist Sanjay Raja said policymakers may need a “larger accumulation of evidence” before the next move. Reuters
But the neat trade — buy miners, fade multinationals — can break fast if growth worries bite. U.S. consumer confidence fell to 84.5, its lowest since May 2014, and Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Oliver Allen said he would be surprised if the deterioration proves “an entirely false signal”. Reuters
The next trigger is the Fed decision later on Wednesday and Powell’s remarks on where rates go next. World markets were mixed ahead of the announcement, while gold and silver jumped as the dollar weakened, the AP reported.
