S&P 500 and Dow hit record highs as Santa rally reaches Wall Street – as it happened

The fabled Santa rally has reached the New York stock exchange!The S&P 500 index of US company shares has hit a record high today, on a shortened Christmas Eve trading session. It touched a new intraday record high of 6,921.42 points, surpassing its previous peak in October.The rally comes as investors continued to bet on more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve next year.There’s also lingering relief that yesterday’s GDP report showed the US economy grew rather faster than expected in the July-September quarter

Alexander Wishart obituary

My father, Alexander Wishart, who has died aged 81, began at the foot of the banking ladder aged 16, eventually becoming general manager and director of Harrods Bank in the 1980s, and regional managing director of the Bank of Beirut (UK) in the 90s. He was a proud member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland.Born in Edinburgh to Margaret (nee McDonald), a munitions worker, and Alexander Wishart, a draftsman and sergeant in the Royal Air Force, Alex grew up in Leith and the Edinburgh suburb of Colinton with his two younger brothers; he went to Leith academy and the Royal high school.Fascinated by aeroplanes, he wanted to join the RAF, but his father, a Battle of Britain and Siege of Malta veteran, instead arranged a meeting with the manager of the National Commercial Bank (later Royal Bank of Scotland) on Leith Walk. Alex began as a junior clerk and, in 1966, while working at the Shandwick Place branch, met Myra Thomson, a secretary, from Kirkcaldy

BP to sell majority stake in $10bn Castrol business to US investment firm

BP has agreed to sell a majority stake in its $10bn (£7.4bn) lubricants business Castrol to the US investment company Stonepeak, as the new chair, Albert Manifold, rapidly reshapes the under-pressure oil and gas company.Stonepeak will acquire a 65% stake in Castrol, in a deal that values the division at $10.1bn including its debt. The deal, in which BP will retain a 35% stake in the business through a joint venture, is expected to close at the end of next year, the company said on Wednesday

‘I’ll never say I’m popping to Jones’s’: shoppers yet to feel love for WH Smith’s high street replacement

“It’s just the same.” Six months on from the sale of WH Smith’s high street business, the name above the door may have changed to TG Jones, but many shoppers have not noticed a splurge of investment or change.“The layout is the same and what they are selling is the same,” says Gillian Parsons as she exits TG Jones on a busy high street in the market town of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where a steady flow of visitors are picking up cards, wrapping paper and the odd present in the week before Christmas.“Even the branding is similar,” says Jazz Minhas, another shopper. Others had not even noticed the name above the door had changed – such was the similarity of the signage, which sticks to a similar blue

Bitcoin’s buzz is gone. Investors chose real gold in 2025 | Nils Pratley

Another week, another record high for the price of gold. And another blow to the bitcoin fan club’s hopeful thesis about owning “digital gold”. This year has been hard for the bitcoin brigade: while real gold soared in value, their cryptocurrency didn’t. Correlation went out of the window. Gold is up 70% so far in dollar terms; bitcoin is down 6%

Bet365 boss receives at least £280m in pay and dividends despite profit slump

Denise Coates, the billionaire boss of Bet365, a self-described “ultimate gambler” and Britain’s highest-paid woman, took home at least £280m in pay and dividends in 2025 despite a slump in pre-tax profits.Coates’s Stoke-based gambling empire recorded turnover of £4bn in the year to March 2025, up from £3.7bn the year before. Pre-tax profits fell to £349m, from £627m in the previous year.Bet365 incurred a £325m increase in expenses as it reshaped its global footprint, expanding its presence in the US and South America while giving up its sometimes controversial presence in China, where online betting is illegal