24th Feb 2026 06:56
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Tuesday, as a nervy start to the week amid tariff uncertainty continues.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 11.4 points lower, 0.1%, at 10,673.34 on Tuesday. The index of London large-caps closed down just 0.20 points at 10,684.74 on Monday.
The pound faded slightly to USD1.3490 on Tuesday morning, from USD1.3505 late Monday. The euro declined to USD1.1780 from USD1.1801. Against the yen, the buck rose to JPY155.05 from JPY154.33.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was steady at 4.04%, where it stood at the time of the London equities close on Monday. The 30-year yield stretched to 4.71% from 4.69%.
In New York on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1.7%, the S&P 500 shed 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.1%.
"Defensive sentiment intensified following new developments related to US trade policy. The proposal to impose a temporary 15% import tariff on most goods, introduced after a ruling by the US Supreme Court on previous tariff measures, has heightened concerns over inflation risks and rising input costs for businesses," XS.com analyst Linh Tran commented.
"Selling pressure was concentrated in the technology and financial sectors, two of the largest weightings within the S&P 500."
IBM shares sank 13% after Anthropic, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, said the model could be used for a key programming language: Common Business-Oriented Language.
"Hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL run in production every day, powering critical systems in finance, airlines, and government. Despite that, the number of people who understand it shrinks every year," Anthropic said in a blog post. "AI excels at streamlining the tasks that once made COBOL modernization cost-prohibitive."
In Asia on Tuesday, financial markets in Shanghai re-opened for the first time since February 13. The Shanghai Composite traded 0.9% higher in late dealings. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 2.0%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.7%, after being closed on Monday for a public holiday. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended flat.
Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown commented: "A bit of a shaky start to the week, yesterday, ostensibly as participants continued to digest Friday's Supreme Court tariff decision. We've not really gone anywhere on the tariff front either. While the 15% 'global tariff' is a headline-grabber, the overall average effective US tariff rate is, now, still a rounding error away from where it was prior to the SCOTUS decision. While one could argue that the 150-day limit on this Section 122 tariff could result in some uncertainty for US businesses, especially importers, that also broadly resembles the backdrop that we've had for the last year anyway.
"Tensions in the Middle East continue to simmer, as 'sources' stories abound referencing the heightened potential for US military intervention in Iran, while we also have the spectre of Nvidia earnings tomorrow looming large over proceedings."
Gold fell to USD5,171.12 an ounce early Tuesday, from USD5,216.70 late Monday. A barrel of Brent fell to USD71.88 from USD71.96.
Tuesday's global economic calendar has consumer confidence figures, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index and S&P/Case-Shiller home price index.
Tuesday's domestic corporate calendar has full-year results from speciality chemicals maker Croda and student accommodation provider, Unite.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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