Must read: US-China dispute, easyJet, UK jobs
ii’s head of investment rounds up the morning’s big news.
14th October 2025 08:53
by Victoria Scholar from interactive investor
GLOBAL MARKETS
Trade tensions between the US and China are escalating as both countries started collecting port fees on shipping firms, pushing up costs on both sides. This has dashed global market sentiment, with a sea of red across Europe after yesterday’s market reprieve.
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However, easyJet (LSE:EZJ) is outperforming, soaring to the top of the FTSE 100, up around 6% amid following an Italian media report suggesting shipping company MSC is interested in a bid for the low cost carrier.
US futures are pointing lower, reversing course after the S&P 500 logged its best day since May and the Nasdaq closed up 2.2%. Cryptocurrencies are selling off, with bitcoin down over 3% and ether and solana both nursing losses of over 5% each. Oil is also caught up in the selling with brent crude down over 1%.
UK UNEMPLOYMENT
The UK unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in the three months to August, above expectations for 4.7%, hitting the highest level since June 2021. Wage growth excluding bonuses rose by 4.7% between June and August, the slowest pace in nearly four years. Vacancies also fell again, marking their 39th consecutive period of declines.
Today’s figures point to growing slack in the labour market, with employers clearly continuing to take a cautious stance when it comes to hiring new staff, which means workers now have less bargaining power to bid for higher wages.
For the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, the latest jobs data points to weakness in the labour market, which suggests the central bank is more likely to cut interest rates again by the end of the year. The pound is under pressure following the data.
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