Sainsbury’s strikes deal to sell Argos for £120mn to Swift Partners
Sale marks UK retailer’s second attempt to offload general merchandise chain as it focuses on its core food business
Burnham to give mayors share of income tax from 2028
New prime minister accelerates former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to move power away from Westminster
Fifa opens door to amending controversial stake sale plan
Football body reaffirms commitment to bringing in external investors despite widespread opposition
South Korean stock market soars 18% as investors pile back into AI
SK Hynix and Samsung stage storming recoveries after this week’s punishing sell-off
The dark arts of securitisation
(It’s not actually magic)
NatWest profits buoyed by retail and wealth units
High street lender’s second-quarter earnings of £2.3bn top analysts’ forecasts
British Airways owner IAG ditches growth plans amid Iran conflict
Soaring fuel prices force airline group to cut capacity
Trump says Hamas has agreed to disarm over time
US president claims Board of Peace reached breakthrough in Gaza talks
BP puts its UK North Sea business up for sale
Decision to market assets comes after talks with Ithaca Energy
What Warsh is (probably) up to
The pro-volatility Fed chair
FTAV’s further reading
Quantum; AI aesthetics; normal goings on in the USA; LinkedIn vs slop; fictional biographies; BNP Paribas; AI finance; and Substack
Iceland’s EU referendum on knife-edge as bloc braces for enlargement litmus test
Also in this newsletter: EU wants to build up to seven AI ‘gigafactories’
Transcript: Is the Fed the referee or the best player?
Katie Martin speaks to Robert Armstrong
FirstFT: Europe vows World Cup boycott in Fifa protest
Also in today’s newsletter: Europe’s wildfire risks and the ‘Nostradamus of AI’
The Fed will face a pivotal meeting in September unless there is a durable ceasefire
Read the July forecast from the FT’s Monetary Policy Radar team
Will AI solve the productivity puzzle? With Nick Bloom
Soumaya Keynes talks to the professor of economics at Stanford University
Transcript: JPMorgan walks into another football firestorm
Sonja Hutson talks to Arash Massoudi, Antoine Gara and Leslie Hook
Ken Griffin’s Situational Awareness
Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund behind Wall Street’s AI trade sells off assets to Citadel
Rhine drought strands ships and forces German production shutdowns
Crucial trade river near its lowest level in eight years as temperatures head towards 40C
We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society
Europe braces for wave of wildfires as prospects rise for ‘overload’
Greece, Italy and parts of central Europe are the most vulnerable in coming weeks, officials warn
How investors should brace portfolios for tech volatility
Many cross-asset holdings are too tilted towards innovation and not protected enough against inflation
FCA launches new push to revive London share trading
Regulator sets out plans for single stream of stock data and will publish market depth figures
JPMorgan walks into another football firestorm
After getting caught up in the Super League controversy, the US bank has been instrumental in Fifa’s plans to raise billions