A market rally in the US has continued with its top index smashing through a previous all-time high, while London’s FTSE 100 lagged behind European peers.
New York’s S&P 500 index moved about 0.8% higher to surpass last month’s intra-day record high.
It follows the inauguration of Donald Trump as president on Monday, which has helped boost the share price of companies focused on technology and artificial intelligence (AI), which traders expect to be favoured under the new presidency.
Netflix’s share price was also climbing more than a tenth after revealing it made record-high earnings over 2024 and had topped 300 million worldwide subscribers.
The Dow Jones index was also up about 0.3% by the time European markets closed.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: “The market is rallying into Trump’s second presidency, as he proves the dominant driver of risk sentiment for global markets.
“Trump is also having a large impact on domestic stocks. Oracle, which will join forces with the US government to produce AI computing infrastructure, has seen its share price soar on Wednesday.”
She added that Netflix’s surging share price was “driven by record subscriber growth in the fourth quarter, and a strong outlook for 2025”.
Meanwhile, in London, the FTSE 100 closed 3.16 points lower, or 0.04%, at 8,545.13.
Official statistics on Wednesday morning revealed that UK public sector borrowing stood at £17.8 billion in December – the highest level for four years.
The FTSE was outperformed by European peers on Wednesday. In Paris, the Cac 40 climbed 0.86%, and in Frankfurt, the Dax rose 0.99%.
The pound was weakening against the US dollar, moving 0.3% lower, at 1.232. Sterling was also down about 0.2% against the euro, at 1.183.
In company news, easyJet shares dropped more than 5% after the budget airline said it made a pre-tax loss of £61 million for the final three months of 2024.
It nonetheless cut its losses by more than half, compared with the same three-month period in 2023, after seeing passenger numbers rise by 7%. Its share price closed 5.2% lower.
Pub group Wetherspoon reported higher sales over recent months, with rising food and bar sales helping offset a dip in hotel rooms.
But it flagged it was facing a £60 million jump in labour-related costs in April, with boss Tim Martin saying the business was in a “reasonable” position but that forecasting was “difficult” in the face of rising expenses.
Shares in Wetherspoon closed 0.4% lower.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Intermediate Capital, up 140p to 2,258p, Halma, up 116p to 2,951p, Entain, up 27.2p to 706.8p, Aviva, up 17.2p to 511.2p, and Games Workshop, up 370p to 14,350p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were easyJet, down 26.4p to 484.8p, United Utilities, down 26.6p to 973p, Centrica, down 3.55p to 134.9p, Severn Trent, down 53p to 2,472p, and Vodafone, down 1.44p to 68.2p.
