Latest Business & Economy News Today: 12 November 2026

Oil prices rose Thursday after President Donald Trump said the United States did not need a deal with Iran, saying the United States had Iran's strait. Brent crude traded 1.1 per cent higher at $93.73 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures rose 0.3 per cent to $86.76. The comments revived worries that the US-Iran war may not end soon, after earlier remarks had eased fears of further strikes and pushed prices down in November.

Poundland has secured two more weeks of legal protection from creditors as its owner Gordon Brothers weighs whether one of three bidders has enough funds to buy the whole business. The chain, which employs about 12,000 people and operates 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, said stores remain open while it seeks a credible plan. Gordon Brothers said funds would be released for full payroll this month and that it had provided £85m of financing.

Metro Bank has put itself up for sale, with shares rising 7 per cent to value the bank at about £1.3bn. The move could hand a windfall of about £420m, or £427m at the reported 190p share price, to Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal, who helped rescue it in 2023. The bank said it was open to bids after a turnaround plan focused on lending to businesses and people with erratic incomes.

Nebius shares fell 10 per cent after third quarter revenue jumped 571 per cent and beat estimates, but guidance was disappointing. The company reported a net loss of $37.5m, or 13 cents per share, compared with a loss of $119.6m a year earlier. It expects fiscal 2026 revenue at the low end of a $3bn to $3.4bn range, 2027 revenue of $12bn to $13bn, and 2026 capital spending of $27bn.

CK Hutchison Holdings denied reports that it had suspended a listing plan for its retail business, AS Watson, amid cooling enthusiasm for Hong Kong IPOs. The conglomerate, valued at HK$266bn, said strategic explorations and evaluations and related preparations are continuing, but no decision has been made.

Scout Motors has roughly 212,000 reservations for its upcoming electric and extended range vehicles, CEO Scott Keogh said. The Volkswagen backed company said its $2bn South Carolina plant is in its final phase, with full production expected next year and customer deliveries in 2028. Keogh said reservations could roughly double before production begins, with 87 per cent choosing extended range electric models and 75 per cent choosing SUVs.

Burberry reported a pre-tax profit of £19m for the six months to 26 September, after a £48m loss a year earlier, as sales rose 6 per cent to £1.1bn. Chief executive Joshua Schulman said pricing from £85 socks to bags and coats above £9,000 helped it outperform a tough market, with sales up 15 per cent in China and 14 per cent in the Americas. Europe and Middle East sales fell 1 per cent, partly due to the Iran war.

Ukraine is investigating fresh restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield service, with President Zelenskyy describing systematic speed limits that hinder the interception of Russian drones. The disruptions occurred as US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin, following trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that ended without a major breakthrough.

Senator Tom Cotton is urging the Trump administration to add Chinese memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies to the US Entity List, citing risks to economic prosperity and military superiority. CXMT, the world's fourth-largest DRAM producer, has seen its market share jump from 4 to 10 per cent in a year and is preparing to produce high-bandwidth memory chips.

Ukrainian defense technology company UFORCE raised $700 million in a funding round valuing it at $6 billion, co-led by Valor Equity Partners and the UK's National Wealth Fund. The company develops unmanned aerial, maritime and land systems plus AI software, and says its NEMESIS drones have completed more than 300,000 combat flights. It plans to use the money to scale manufacturing in Ukraine and allied countries.

Zhuhai Huafa Group ended its credit-rating mandate with China Lianhe Credit Rating, withdrawing its AAA issuer rating and ratings on 16 bonds after Fitch downgraded the firm to BB+ from BBB. The state-owned firm reported a third-quarter pre-tax loss of 7.7 billion yuan, with revenue down 21 per cent and debt ratio over 75 per cent. A trader called the move defensive, and a bank told its department to stop opening new positions in its bonds.

US Treasury yields edged higher Thursday as bond trading resumed after the Veterans Day closure and investors awaited fresh inflation and housing data. The 10-year note yield rose 2 basis points to 5.0100 per cent, while the 2-year yield rose 5 basis points to 4.7800 per cent. Traders are watching Friday's producer price report and Thursday's existing home sales data for clues about the Federal Reserve.

Reports have placed China's Ministry of State Security at the centre of the Nvidia CEO affair, after US intelligence reportedly believe it recruited businesswoman Alice Huang to gather information on Jensen Huang. The two are not related, and it remains unclear whether sensitive information was shared. The ministry, established in 1983, has gained prominence under President Xi Jinping as Beijing emphasises national security.

The UK economy grew 0.7 per cent in the third quarter, its fastest expansion in more than two years, after growing 0.5 per cent in the previous quarter. Services output rose 0.9 per cent, offsetting a 0.7 per cent contraction in construction, while September GDP rose 0.2 per cent month on month. ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said AI linked businesses helped boost services, and the figures were welcomed by the Prime Minister and Chancellor.

Chinese regulators backed investor lawsuits against listed firms, including a case against TongTech for more than 50 retail investors. The regulator found TongTech had inflated sales by 432 million yuan and profits by 314 million yuan from 2019 to 2022. Suzhou Qingyue Optoelectronics Technology set up a special fund to compensate investors for overstated earnings. The moves aim to protect 240 million investors and restore market confidence.

Household electricity and gas prices fell on average across the EU in the first half of 2026, despite the Iran war driving up wholesale gas prices. Eurostat data showed electricity costs ranged from 11.4 euros per 100 kWh in Hungary to 38.7 in Ireland. Romania recorded the sharpest price increase in purchasing power terms, while Finland saw the largest rise in euro terms.

Island Energy will raise Jersey gas tariffs by 1p per kilowatt hour for households and businesses from 1 December, an increase of about 5 per cent. The company said the rise reflects higher wholesale gas and liquefied petroleum gas costs after the conflict with Iran disrupted exports and shipping routes.

Chief executive Graeme Millar said advance fuel purchases had limited the impact, but could not fully protect customers from sustained cost increases.

Greene King, the British brewer and pub operator owned by the Li family, has appointed its first female chief executive in 227 years. Clair Preston-Beer, its chief commercial officer, will become chief executive in March 2027, succeeding Nick Mackenzie, who will step down at the end of February but remain on the board. Greene King operates about 2,500 pubs, restaurants and hotels and employs around 38,000 people.

Goldman Sachs says Chinese companies could unlock a further 15 per cent in equity valuation upside by stepping up share buybacks and dividend payouts. The report suggests that increasing corporate payout ratios, in line with Beijing's efforts to improve shareholder returns, could lift valuations of the MSCI China Index by about 15 per cent.

Escalating conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels in Yemen have put listed Chinese companies in a dilemma, as the rebels order foreign businesses to register with a local body to avoid becoming targets of military strikes. An analyst said the situation requires serious attention from businesses with a presence in the oil-rich region.

Singapore-based Megaspeed issued its first public statement as scrutiny grew over suspicions it helped move restricted Nvidia chips to China. Reports said Alice Huang's relationship with Jensen Huang helped facilitate at least $7.5 billion in Nvidia chip shipments to Chinese firms, though the figure could not be independently verified. Nvidia's board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.

All six Hong Kong listings launched this week priced at or near the bottom of their marketed ranges amid tepid institutional interest. Hosin Electronics and Zhuhai Amicro Technology debuted on Thursday after trimming valuations, with international offerings oversubscribed by only 0.45 and 0.05 times. Denglin, the week's largest listing, fell 10 per cent in its first two trading days after raising HK$1.4 billion.

A closed-door roundtable co-organised by the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Investment Corporation examined investment opportunities under Hong Kong's first Five-Year plan. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po discussed the city's role as an international financial centre, with participants focusing on the Northern Metropolis and HKIC's patient capital.

Citigroup expects Hong Kong's IPO pipeline to become more diverse in 2027 as global investors show greater appetite for solid Chinese companies in biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and renewable energy. It sees a bullish outlook next year because of mainland fundraising demand and global investors' need to diversify, even as AI-related demand wanes.

Paris La Defense, the public development authority that runs the area, has plans to convert up to a fifth of office buildings into housing. Groupama Immobilier intends to convert the nine-storey Le Diamant office building into apartments, facing challenges such as windowless interior space, plumbing and low ceilings. Officials said office demand has fallen since the pandemic and homeworking, with La Defense vacancy at 14 to 15 per cent.

The Legendale Hotel Beijing has closed to guests and is being converted into a premium nursing home, with admission requiring an insurance premium of more than 18.88 million yuan. Ping An Life Insurance will help redevelop the five-star hotel, which closed on November 7 and is expected to open next year. The project highlights structural imbalance in Beijing's hotel sector, where high-end properties may not attract affluent visitors.