The FTSE 100 recovered early losses on Monday as attention shifted back to US and Asian equities, particularly the beaten-down technology sector rocked by fears of a slowdown in AI spending last week.
It may be an exaggeration to say the FTSE 100 has started to trade inversely to other major indices such as the S&P 500, NASDAQ and leading Asian indices, but London’s lack of tech shares and its weighting to commodities have certainly driven starkly different intraday performance than peers in recent weeks.
This continued into Monday’s session with NASDAQ futures pointing to a strong US cash open as the FTSE 100 spluttered higher 0.1% as of the time of writing amid reports of US/Iran talks that helped oil lower. Brent was down 4% in midmorning trade.
“After last week’s bruising showing for AI-related stocks, South Korean and Chinese names made a modest recovery, while US futures pointed to a positive start on Wall Street when trading opens on Monday, including for the tech-heavy Nasdaq index,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“The market’s attention might be caught up with events in US politics this week as the results of the midterm elections land. While short-term noise can create volatility, historically their influence on the markets in the long term has been modest.”
The FTSE 100 leaderboard was a mixed bag on Monday, with individual names driving trade rather than broader sector bets.
St James’s Place was the FTSE 100’s top riser as the wealth manager’s shares bounced back from the worst levels of 2026.
Whitbread, meanwhile, was up 2.1% and nearing the year’s best levels so far.
Weir Group caught investors’ attention and rose 2.8% while JD Sports continued its march higher by adding another 2.7%.
Falling oil prices weighed on the FTSE 100’s energy producers, with Ithaca Energy dropping 2.4%. BP fell 1.4%.
Although falling oil prices will help ease inflationary pressures, investors will be all too aware that another bust week lies ahead, with tech earnings that could cause further volatility.
“Technology earnings will remain a major driver of sentiment, with Apple reporting today, followed by AMD and other major companies later in the week,” explained Daniela Hathorn, Senior Market Analyst at Capital.com.