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UK stock markets tumble as investors ‘spooked’ by US banking issues

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UK stock markets tumble as investors ‘spooked’ by US banking issues



The UK’s FTSE 100 has tumbled as a sell-off spreads across global markets, amid concerns about the stability of regional banks in the US.

Shares in big global banks like Barclays and Standard Chartered were down by more than 5% on Friday morning.

The FTSE 100 was falling by about 1.5%, while the FTSE 250 was down by more than 1.6%.

Other Europe indexes were falling, with Germany’s Dax down by more than 2% and France’s Cac 40 declining by around 0.8%.

US regional banking stocks had fallen sharply on Thursday after two lenders revealed issues with bad and fraudulent loans, triggering a sell-off across the wider market.

Zions Bancorp announced it was taking a 50 billion US dollar (£37 billion) charge on the discovery of two bad loans, while Western Alliance said it was handling a potentially fraudulent borrower.

Russ Mould, investment director for AJ Bell, said investors were “spooked” by the news and “possibly opting to have lower exposure in case a crisis is brewing” in the banking sector.

“There is no evidence of any issues with the London-listed core banking names, but investors often have a knee-jerk reaction when problems appear anywhere in the sector,” he explained.

“In addition to news related to US regional banks, also weighing on sentiment were signs of liquidity pressures in America.

Banks tapped the Federal Reserve’s short-term lending facility for more than 15 billion US dollars (£11 billion) over the past two days, the largest amount borrowed over a two-day period since the Covid pandemic.”

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “Of themselves, the credit losses announced by two regional banks were limited and seem to be contained.

“While there are hopes that this could be an isolated incident, the episode brought back unwelcome memories of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023 and, with several regional banks yet to report, investors are on high alert.

“Indeed, despite there being no obvious read across to the large banks, the reports were enough to put the skids under the sector as a whole, with losses of around 3% more or less across the board.”

At the same time, gold prices shot up to a new all-time high as investors sought out the safe-haven asset amid the stock market turbulence.

Prices reached about 4,380 US dollars (£3,260) per ounce on Friday morning.



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Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stocks fall as Trump says he wants $150 price for GLP-1s

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Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stocks fall as Trump says he wants 0 price for GLP-1s


Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk dropped Friday, after President Donald Trump said his administration aims to cut the cost of brand name GLP-1 weight loss drugs to $150 per month, a fraction of their current list price.

“In London, you’d buy a certain drug for $130 and even less than that … $88 as of… a month ago. And in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump said during a Thursday afternoon event about in vitro fertilization at the White House. “Instead of $1,300 you’ll be paying about $150 and they’ll be paying $150 so we’re going to pay the same thing.”

Asked by a reporter what drug he was referring to, Trump replied, “I was referring to Ozempic or … the fat loss drug.”

At that point, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected and stressed that the administration has not yet agreed to GLP-1 price reductions with drugmakers.

“We have not negotiated those yet … We’re going to be rolling these out over time, the GLP category of drugs, which includes Ozempic have not been negotiated yet,” Oz said.

Just a week ago, Oz had said that the administration was “in the middle of a lot of action” with price discussions with weight loss drugmakers.

CMS Administrator Dr. Oz on GLP-1 for weight loss in Medicare: You’ll be hearing more soon

Eli Lilly shares closed 2% lower Friday, while Novo Nordisk’s stock fell 3% in U.S. trading. Meanwhile, shares of Hims & Hers Health — which sells much cheaper compounded GLP-1s — plunged more than 15%.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were among 17 of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies that received letters from the Trump administration following the president’s executive order on so-called most-favored nation pricing, demanding that businesses bring U.S. drug prices in line with those in other developed nations.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca have signed on to the president’s initiative, striking drug pricing deals with the administration. But Trump and Oz’s comments make it clear the administration is looking to get the weight loss drugmakers on board.

$150 GLP-1 would be cheaper than compounders

While demand for weight loss drugs has grown, price has remained an obstacle for consumers and employers.

Only about one in five large employers currently offer GLP-1s for weight loss, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those who do, two-thirds say the high cost drugs have had a “significant” impact on their prescription drug spending.

Workers who don’t get coverage through health insurance have increasingly turned to the cash market to buy the drugs on their own.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk sell discounted versions of their diabetes and weight loss medications on their direct-to-consumer sites at roughly $500 a month. Telehealth providers like Hims & Hers offer compounded versions of GLP-1s for less than half that price, anywhere between $130 to $200 per month.

If the administration could bring the cash price for popular weight loss drugs like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy down to $150, that would be competitive with compounded options and could have a major impact on the current cash market.



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‘The tide went out’: How a string of bad loans has bank investors hunting for hidden risks

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‘The tide went out’: How a string of bad loans has bank investors hunting for hidden risks


Big banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs had just finished taking victory laps after a blockbuster quarter when concerns emerged from an obscure corner of Wall Street, sending a collective shiver through global finance.

Regional bank Zions late Wednesday disclosed a near total wipeout on $60 million in loans after finding “apparent misrepresentations” from the borrowers. The next day, peer Western Alliance said that it had sued the same borrower, a commercial real estate firm called the Cantor Group, for alleged fraud.

The result was a sudden and deep selloff among regional banks, drawing comparisons to the churn of the 2023 banking crisis that consumed Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic. This time around, investors are focused on a specific type of lending made by banks to non-depository financial institutions, or NDFIs, as the source of possible contagion.

“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week. “Everyone should be forewarned on this one.”

Concerns over credit quality had been simmering for weeks after the September collapse of two U.S. auto-related companies. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, this week reported a $170 million loss tied to one of them, the subprime auto lender Tricolor.

But it wasn’t until a third case of alleged fraud around loans made to NDFIs that investors were jolted into fearing the worst, according to Truist banking analyst Brian Foran.

“You now have had three situations where there was alleged fraud” involving NDFIs, Foran said.

Dimon’s comments “really resonated with people who were like, ‘Oh, man, the tide went out a little bit, and now we’re seeing who was lacking their swim trunks,” Foran said.

Regional banks and credit concerns: Here's what to know

What are NDFIs?

The episode cast a spotlight on a fast-growing category of loans made by regional banks and global investment banks alike. Rules put into place after the 2008 financial crisis discouraged regulated banks from making many types of loans, from mortgages to subprime auto, leading to the rise of thousands of non-bank lenders.

Moving riskier activities outside of the regulated bank perimeter, where failures are backstopped by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, seemed like a good move.

But it turns out, banks are a major source of funding for non-bank lenders: commercial loans to NDFIs reached $1.14 trillion as of March, per the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Bank loans made to non-bank financial firms were the single fastest-growing category, rising 26% annually since 2012, according to the St. Louis Fed.

“The surge in NDFI lending was really because all these different regulations added up to say there are a bunch of loans banks can’t do anymore, but if they lend to someone else who does them, that’s OK,” Foran said.

“We really don’t know much about these NDFI books,” Foran said. “People are saying, ‘I didn’t know it was so easy for a bank to think they had $50 million in collateral and find out they had zero.'”

‘Overreaction’ or early?

Part of what’s spooking investors is that, while some of the loan losses disclosed by regional banks have been relatively small, they’ve been near total wipeouts, said KBW bank analyst Catherine Mealor.

“NDFI lending, because of the collateral involved, typically has a higher loss rate, and the losses can come very quickly and out of nowhere,” Mealor said. “It’s really hard to wrap your mind around these risks.”

Mealor said investors have been inundating her with questions around the level of NDFI exposures in her coverage universe, the analyst said. Firms including Western Alliance and Axos Financial are among those with the highest proportion of NDFI loans, according to an August research note from Janney Montgomery.

Still, regional banks are benefitting from an improving interest rate environment and rising mergers activity, which underpin valuations, Mealor said, adding she thinks this week’s stock selloff was an “overreaction.”

“You want to avoid companies that show up high in the screen for NDFI loans,” she said. “There are plenty of high-quality companies in the KRX that are trading at a massive discount.”



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Gold price rally impact: India’s gold reserves cross $100 billion for the first time; share in forex reserves highest since 1996-97 – The Times of India

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Gold price rally impact: India’s gold reserves cross 0 billion for the first time; share in forex reserves highest since 1996-97 – The Times of India


The proportion of gold within India’s foreign exchange reserves has seen a significant rise in the last ten years. (AI image)

Gold’s record rally has helped India’s gold reserves value cross the $100 billion mark for the first time ever. The Reserve Bank of India‘s (RBI) latest foreign exchange reserves data reveals that India’s gold reserves have exceeded $100 billion for the first time, primarily due to rising global prices, despite a significant reduction in the central bank’s acquisitions this year.According to RBI data released on October 10, India’s gold holdings increased by $3.595 billion to reach $102.365 billion, whilst the total foreign exchange reserves decreased by $2.18 billion to $697.784 billion.

India’s Gold Reserves – Top Facts

According to a Reuters report, traders indicate that gold now constitutes 14.7% of India’s total foreign exchange reserves, reaching its highest proportion since 1996-97.The proportion of gold within India’s foreign exchange reserves has seen a significant rise in the last ten years, climbing from under 7% to approximately 15%. This increase reflects both the RBI’s systematic gold acquisition and substantial increases in worldwide gold prices.This development has resulted in the value of India’s gold reserves reaching the $100 billion mark, despite the RBI notably reducing its gold acquisitions this year.According to World Gold Council statistics, the RBI’s gold purchases in 2025 were limited to four months out of the first nine months, which differs from 2024 when the central bank bought gold almost every month.The total gold procurement from January through September amounted to merely 4 tonnes – a substantial decrease from the 50 tonnes acquired during the corresponding period in the previous year.As gold prices experience substantial growth, its proportion within India’s foreign exchange reserves has shown notable expansion, primarily due to valuation benefits, according to Kavita Chacko, who heads research for India at the World Gold Council.The precious metal has witnessed an impressive increase of approximately 65% in 2025, influenced by a combination of economic factors, institutional behaviour and market sentiment.International central banks persist in building their gold holdings to diversify reserves beyond the US dollar, particularly in response to growing geopolitical uncertainties, sanctions-related challenges and efforts to reduce dollar dependency.





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