Crypto News: The London Rush: Happy shoppers

Hi, I'm Charles from Bloomberg UK's breaking news team, catching you up on this morning's business stories.

There's a fair bit of doom and gloom surrounding the British economy, with Labour forever moaning about a £22 billion black hole and the inevitability of tax hikes. But things can't be that bad — after all, the consumer is still spending.

Both Next and Ocado's retail arm raised guidance this morning, posting sales figures that beat analyst expectations.

Next shares opened 5% higher, hitting a record high, while Ocado shares popped 17%.

Next boosted its profit outlook given the strength of full price sales throughout what seems to be a late-summer, early-Autumn splurge. This isn't exactly a UK-thing, though: a lot of Next's growth is coming from online sales overseas.

Ocado's joint venture with M&S, meanwhile, cited "unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value" — which beneath the PR spin, shows that the purple truck is expanding its footprint beyond leafy suburbs and into the more cost-conscious consumer.

Both are fascinating, but slightly anecdotal insights. We should have a more scientific approach tomorrow when we get retail sales data. Stay tuned.

What's your take? Ping me on X, LinkedIn or drop me an email at ccapel2@bloomberg.net. Oh, and do subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted business journalism on the UK, and beyond.

Close Brothers sold its wealth management business to Oaktree Capital Management for up to £200 million. It is part of a plan outlined in the spring to improve the company's capital base.

Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital says AI is winning it new business, particularly from its tool that automates marketing workflows, including hyper-personalisation and copy writing. The company posted an operating loss for the first half of the year.

The City of London thinks the UK could draw as much as £7.7 billion more investment by 2030 if it did a better job of attracting foreign sovereign wealth.

The exploding walkie-talkies in Lebanon were made at least a decade ago.
Xi's reshaping of China unleashed a crisis for millions of high-earners.
Commerzbank is said to speed up CEO succession after UniCredit's move.

Here's your daily snap analysis from Bloomberg UK's Markets Today blog:

The Federal Reserve went big and cut rates by 50 basis points. That's going to dominate market attention all day because of the implications for assets and monetary policy all over the world.

It will also play a part in how the Bank of England's decision is digested. No change is expected from the BOE and traders haven't budged on that view this morning following the Fed's move. But they have firmed up their expectation that the BOE will cut at a faster pace than the quarterly reductions that most had pencilled in after the August meeting.

That's going to be the thing to watch today — any hints from the BOE about not just when the next cut is going to come, but any that may happen beyond that too. For first-time buyers and mortgage holders, it is those expectations about future rate cuts that will influence competition among lenders and the prospects of getting a better deal than what they are currently staring down.

— Sam Unsted

Check Bloomberg UK's Markets Today blog for updates all day.

The Bank of England's rate decision will be announced at midday today. Read the decision day guide here. Tune in to the Markets Today blog for the immediate reaction.

Tomorrow, we'll get retail sales data for August. We'll see if consumers managed to get out there and spend following a wet start to the summer.

The impending Autumn statement has put a freeze on which part of the market? (Hint: you may have limited sympathy!)

Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

[Yesterday's answer: Michael Jordan finally sold his mansion in suburban Chicago.]

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