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Market brief · the same for every editionYesterday's news, the markets and what's coming
Market brief

Yesterday's news, the markets and what's coming

World markets · west to eastRegular trading hours in local and UK time. Public holidays and unscheduled closures not included.
Prices as at Updated at the close of play each weekday

News items summarise third-party reporting and may contain errors. Check the source link before relying on anything. Not investment advice.

Stock markets

Major indices

IndexLevelDayWeekMonthThis year
Commodities watch

Oil, gas, metals, food and currencies

The bars show the move over a week, a month, this year and 12 months, so you can see the trend at a glance. The trend label is based on the last month. Each card says which shares it matters for.

Close-of-play figures, not real-time prices. Commodity, currency and crypto prices can move sharply, and cryptoassets are largely unregulated in the UK. Not investment advice. Important information

Economic calendar

The data and decisions that move markets

Inflation, jobs (including US non-farm payrolls), growth, business surveys and central bank decisions over the next few weeks. Times are UK time. Red-edged rows are the big ones. "Last" is the previous reading; "Expected" is the market consensus where one is published.

    Time left to qualify
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    World markets · west to eastRegular trading hours in local and UK time. Public holidays and unscheduled closures not included.
    Looking down a City of London street towards St Paul's Cathedral
    Dividend simulator

    If you invested today, what would you be paid, and when?

    Set the fee to whatever your broker charges for each purchase. Stamp Duty Reserve Tax of 0.5% applies from the first pound on electronic share purchases, which is how online brokers buy. The £1,000 threshold only applies to paper stock transfer forms.

    Total dividend yield · 12 months——
    Dividends over 12 months—If the last 12 months' payments repeat
    Dividend cover—
    How often it pays—
    This payment only · return——
    This payment only · dividend——
    Gross position after the payment——
    One-off buying costs—
    Money invested—
    First payment lands in—
    CompanyCloseSharesYou'd receivePaid onCountdown to payment

    A simulation, not advice. It assumes you buy at the previous closing price and hold on the record date. In practice you pay the dealer's offer price, which is a little higher, and the share price usually drops by around the dividend on the ex-date. Dollar dividends are converted at the stated exchange rate, so the pounds you receive can differ. Dividends above the £500 annual allowance may be taxable outside an ISA or SIPP.

    Yield Maximiser

    Highest dividend yields still open to qualify for, with the cover behind them

    A high yield is only worth having if profits pay for it. Dividend cover shows how many times earnings could pay the dividend: 2x or more is comfortable, below 1x means the company is paying out more than it earned. A high yield with thin cover can be a warning sign of a future cut, sometimes called a yield trap.

    Tap any company to open it and see what you would be paid, when it lands, and what's driving the business.

      2x+ Strong 1.5–2x Adequate 1–1.5x Thin Under 1x Not covered

      Cover is trailing 12-month earnings per share divided by dividends per share, on statutory (reported) earnings, from Bigdata.com (FMP data). One-off gains or losses can distort it, and those cases are flagged. The 12-month yield is dividends paid over the last year divided by the share price. "This payment" is the next dividend divided by the previous close.

      Spotlight

      Three records worth a closer look

      Stock Chess · this week's ten

      What each company is working on

      Projects, deals and targets the companies themselves have announced in results, RNS statements and capital markets days, together with the next date that could move the story. These are company plans, not forecasts from The FOMO Dividend. Each one can slip or fail.

      The ledger

      Companies going ex-dividend

      CompanyIndexTypeDividendPayment % of priceForecast yieldCoverStatusSource

      "% of price" divides this single payment by the share price on 29 September 2026 (interactive investor data). Forecast yield is the forward 12-month figure from the same table. A dash means the figure has not yet been sourced, not that it is zero.

      Plain English

      Terms used on this page

      Ex-dividend date

      The first day a share trades without the right to the declared dividend. To qualify, investors generally need to buy before this date, subject to settlement and market rules. On the ex-date the price often falls by roughly the dividend amount, though other market moves can outweigh this.

      Record date

      The date the company checks its register to see who gets paid. In the UK it usually falls the day after the ex-dividend date.

      Dividend cover

      How many times earnings could pay the dividend: earnings per share ÷ dividend per share. Always check which earnings measure and which period are used. Hays' 2.8x, for example, uses FY26 pre-exceptional earnings.

      Trailing 12-month yield

      Dividends actually paid over the past year, divided by today's share price. It looks backwards and can mislead when a dividend has just been cut or raised.

      Forecast (prospective) yield

      Expected dividends for the next 12 months, divided by today's price. It depends on analyst forecasts, which can change.

      Payout ratio

      The share of earnings paid out as dividends: dividend ÷ earnings. It is the inverse of cover, so a cover of 2x equals a payout ratio of 50%.

      Reel script · 30 seconds

      A dramatised interview with a host and two expert guests. The guests are fictional characters to be voiced by actors, so no real person is quoted. Every figure comes from this page.

      Sources

      Where each figure comes from