European defence company stocks have dropped at the start of trading, and wholesale gas price are down too, after officials from Washington and Kyiv held weekend talks in Geneva over how to end the Ukraine-Russia war,Last night, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with Russia, after a row over an original US-backed document that included many of Moscow’s demands,The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he was “very optimistic” about the progress of the talks in Switzerland,Rubio told reporters:“I think we made a tremendous amount of progress,We’ve really moved forward, so I feel very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a very reasonable period of time, very soon.

”Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also sounded positive, saying the sides had made “very good progress”, and were “moving forward to the just and lasting peace Ukrainian people deserve”.Ukraine’s European allies published their own Kyiv-friendly plan on Sunday.It says negotiations over territory should take place after a ceasefire is agreed and should start from the line of contact – the existing frontline.The war continued over the weekend, though, with a Russian drone strike on the major Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killing four people and wounding 17 on Sunday.Hopes that the Geneva talks could lead to a breakthough to end the talks – leading to fewer weapons sales - knocked German defence firm Rheinmettal down by 3.

5% at the start of trading.Renk, which makes propulsion and drivetrain components for military vehicles, are down over 4%.In London, defence contractor Babcock’s shares have dropped by 1.4%, while BAE Systems dipped 1% at the open.Seperately, Bloomberg reports that European natural gas prices have hit an 18 month low today.

They say:European natural gas dropped below €30 a megawatt-hour for the first time in more than a year amid discussions about a potential end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.Benchmark futures hit the lowest levels since May 2024.They had been trading in a narrow band for weeks as traders weighed the region’s ample supplies against frequently shifting weather forecasts, assessing whether there’ll be enough gas to get through winter.And finally, European defence stocks have closed in the red, pushed down by hopes of a breakthrough in the talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war.In London, weapons maker BAE Systems ended the day among the big fallers on the FTSE 100 share index, down 3%, with defence contractor Babcock losing 1.

5%.German arms maker Rheinmetall has lost over 5%, while Renk lost 3.85%.Stocks fell after the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with RussiaHowever, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said today there was more work to do to establish a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, but progress was being made.Starmer said a group of countries supporting Ukraine, known as the coalition of the willing, would discuss the progress being during a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

He told broadcasters:“Everybody is absolutely focused on what we need to get out of this, and that is a just and lasting peace.”Back on the Danish stock market, Novo Nordisk’s share price recovered some of its earlier losses, but ended in the red.Following the news that its semaglutide-based drugs did not slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in late-stage trials, Novo’s shares have closed down 5.79% tonight at 287 Danish krona.The US have restarted tariffs talks with the EU with a thinly veiled warning they will not drop Donald Trump’s punitive 50% tariffs on steel unless the EU rolls back on regulation on US tech giants.

Speaking after meeting EU trade ministers over lunch, commercial secretary Howard Lutnick told reports that the EU needed to come up with a “balanced approach”.He flew into Brussels on his private jet for meetings with EU commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and the 27 EU trade ministers who want the steel and steel derivative tariffs eased along with 15% tariffs on wine and spirits that before Trump were rated at near zero and zero.“If they can come up with that balanced approach, which I think they can, then we will together with them handle the steel and aluminium issues,” he told reporters.While Šefčovič described an earlier breakfast meeting with Lutnick as “constructive” the read out from the US typically blunt.“We are talking to them about” rolling back EU tech rules, Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg Television (as covered earlier).

“In exchange for that, we will come up with a cool steel and aluminum deal.”Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer are due to have meetings with business leaders this afternoon, followed by a working dinner with EU commissioners on the 13th floor of the EU headquarters tonight.The Bank of Israel has cut interest rates for the first time in almost two years.Israel’s central bank lowered borrowing costs by a quarter of one percent, and said inflation was moderating following the ceasefire in Gaza.It said:In view of geopolitical developments, economic activity in Israel recovered sharply during the third quarter.

Annual inflation moderated and entered the target range.During the reviewed period, the shekel appreciated and Israel’s risk premium continued to decline to slightly above its prewar level.The move lowers Israel’s benchmark rate to 4.25% from 4.5%.

Announcing the decision, the Bank of Israel added:Annual inflation has moderated, and stood at 2,5 percent in the past two readings,Forecasters project that there will be some increase in inflation at the end of the year, and that it will then decline and stabilize around the midpoint of the target range,Economic activity recovered sharply in the third quarter,GDP expanded at a rate of 12.

4 percent in annual terms, but its level remains lower than its long-term trend.The labor market remains tight.The ratio between the number of job vacancies and the number of unemployed remains high and the pace of wage increases continues to rise.Wall Street’s main indexes have opened higher, lifted by technology stocks, as expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December grow.The Dow Jones industrial average is up 55 points, or 0.

12%, at 46,300, while the broader S&P 500 index has gained 0,7%,The tech-focused Nasdaq has jumped by 1,4% in early trading,Metals recycling firm Unimetals has filed for compulsory liquidation, putting around 650 jobs at risk, PA Media reports.

The company, which operates 27 sites nationwide, is expected to begin winding down as soon as Tuesday after efforts to find a buyer for the business failed.It follows several notices of intention to appoint administrators in recent weeks, with advisers from Alvarez & Marsal managing discussions with possible buyers, but they were unable to secure a sale.A spokesperson for Unimetals said:“We have worked tirelessly to explore every possible option to secure new financing for Unimetals Recycling (UK) Ltd, with the aim of meeting our financial obligations and safeguarding the future of the business.“This included an accelerated M&A process, supported by our advisers and undertaken in full collaboration with stakeholders, to identify potential buyers or investors.“Regretfully, despite substantial interest and attempts at completing a deal, no transaction was concluded.

”The spokesperson added:“We recognise how distressing this news will be for everyone connected to Unimetals Recycling (UK) Ltd, particularly our employees who have worked tirelessly over the last year since we acquired it from Sims to try and turn this business around.”The group said it was “working urgently to agree on a clear plan and timeline for what happens next”.UK supermarket chain Asda has seen its credit rating cut deeper into junk territory today.Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded Bellis Finco PLC, the parent company of ASDA Group, to ‘B’ from ‘B+’, with a negative outlook.Fitch took the decision after concluding that Asda’s strategy of price cuts will hurt profits, and after analysing last week’s plan to sell off 24 stores and a distribution centre and lease them back.

Fitch says:The downgrade reflects Fitch’s expectation that the pricing and availability strategy introduced to regain market share, combined with disruption from Project Future, will lead to a larger contraction in 2025 EBITDA [earnings] than initially estimated.We also expect that the just announced £568 million sales and leaseback transaction, accompanied by increased capex, will increase leverage and could bring free cash flow (FCF) generation down towards neutral over 2026-2028.We now anticipate EBITDAR leverage will remain materially above 6x until 2028.Meanwhile in the UK, the country’s biggest life insurers including Aviva, Legal & General, Scottish and Phoenix, could weather a “severe” market downturn, according to the Bank of England’s latest stress tests.The tests put the life insurers’ balance sheet through a core scenario of “severe financial market stress” involving a drop in interest rates, tumbling stock prices and property values, and a jump in borrowing costs for companies that led.

to credit downgrades and defaults.New documents released on Monday broke down the aggregate results released by the Bank last week, and showed that the strongest performers were Rothesay, Pension Insurance Corp and Aviva’s subsidiary Aviva International Insurance.M&G’s Prudential Assurance, Phoenix Group’s Phoenix Life arm, and Just Group’s Partnership Life Assurance Company, had the lowest capital positions after being put through the tests.While this was the third-ever UK life insurer stress test, it is the first time firm-specific results have been published by the Bank.However, the regulator explained this was “not a pass-fail exercise”, and unlike the Bank of England’s stress tests for high street lenders, this would not influence capital requirements or buffers for life insurers.

In the aggregate results published last week, the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said:“The PRA continues to expect all firms to maintain robust risk management capabilities, including use of their own stress and scenario testing, to test their resilience to a range of downside scenarios and to inform their capital planning.”Back in Brussels, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the European Union needs to change its digital regulations in order to get a deal to lower steel and aluminum tariffs.“We are talking to them about” rolling back EU tech rules, Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.“In exchange for that, we will come up with a cool steel and aluminum deal.”As reported this morning, Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were in Brussels on Monday for their first official visit since reaching a trade deal with the EU in July.

Lutnick made clear any deal on steel or aluminum is contingent on the EU rolling back some of its regulations on major American tech companies.Lutnick and Greer met with EU technology czar Henna Virkkunen on Monday to discuss the issue.Lutnick says:“The idea is if they take the foot off this regulatory framework and make it more inviting for our companies, they can get the benefit of hundreds of billions, possibly one trillion of investment.”Novo Nordisk’s shares have dropped to their lowest level since July 2021, Reuters reporter.Newsflash: Shares in Danish pharmaceuticals giant Novo Nordisk have tumbled around 10% after it reported that the latest trials of its Alzheimer’s treatment did not show a “statistically significant” reduction in progression of the disease.

In a disappointing development, Novo says that two trials of its semaglutide drug had failed to show that it slowed cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients.Novo says that treatment with semaglutide did result in improvement of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarkers in both trials, but this did not translate into a delay of disease progression.Semaglutide is sold under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, as anti-obesity and diabetes drugs, so Alzheimer’s treatment would have been a new use for the drug.A previous study had suggested it could play a role here:Martin Holst Lange, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of Research and Development at Novo Nordisk, says:“Based on the significant unmet need in Alzheimer’s disease as well as a number of indicative data points, we felt we had a responsibility to explore semaglutide’s potential, despite a low likelihood of success.We are proud to have conducted two well-controlled phase 3 trials in Alzheimer’s disease that meet the highest standards of research and rigorous methodology,.

“We sincerely thank all participants and their caregivers for their meaningful contributions.While semaglutide did not demonstrate efficacy in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, the extensive body of evidence supporting semaglutide continues to provide benefits for individuals with type 2 diabetes, obesity, and related comorbidities.”UK government bonds and the pound are both calm today, as the City awaits the budget in two days time.But there could be ructions on Wednesday, if investors are disappointed by Rachel Reeves’s fiscal plans.A key focus will be how much headroom the chancellor creates to keep within the government’s fiscal mandate (for the current budget to be in balance in 2029-30).

At the last budget, she was only meeting this goal by £9,9bn, not enough to absorb many shocks,Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, warns that Reeves could face a ‘tantrum’ in the bond market:Weekend press reports suggest Rachel Reeves will end the two-child benefit cap,This will raise welfare spending in the short term at least,She’s promising to crack down on benefit fraud and tackle welfare reform in return, but banking on the market giving her a free pass on that seems risky.

Given the government has consistently failed to push through any reforms or cuts, to assume it can impose restraint in 2029/30 is scarcely believable.As someone put it at the weekend, every government meets its fiscal rules yet we are slowly bust.Buying back some credibility from the market and reducing the premium the UK pays (and so getting some extra headroom without painful tax hikes that squeeze more and more of the most productive elements of the economy), requires tough medicine now and jam tomorrow, not today.For a Chancellor who has hung her credibility cap on the bond markets, a tantrum could be very dangerous indeed.An index tracking European defence stocks has fallen to its lowest level since July, down 2.

2% today,Shares in Ferrexpo, a major exporter of iron ore pellets for the steel industry, have jumped by a fifth this morning on hopes of a Ukraine-Russia breakthrough,Ferrexpo operatees three mines and a production facility in Ukraine, and has been badly disrupted by the war,At the start of the conflict its shipments were disrupted after export facilities at the port of Pivdennyi in the south-west of Ukraine were suspended,Disruption has continued ever since; earlier this month it suspended operations at two subsidiaries, following an attack on Ukrainian transmission infrastructure.

This morning, following the weekend talke in Geneva, Ferrexpo’s shares are up 21% at 69.78p.Over at London’s Queen Elizabeth II Centre, the head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging Rachel Reeves to prove that she is committed to growth in this week’s budget.CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith is telling the group’s annual meeting that the government must focus on growth, and avoid becoming locked in “a stop-start economy.”Newton-Smith says many firms are concerned this year’s Budget will be a repeat of 2024, which included tax rises in businesses