Business news live: Inheritance tax numbers rises, Next benefits from M&S cyber hack

US tech giants Meta and Microsoft added more than half a trillion dollars in combined value overnight in a major boost for shareholders.

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, will see its share price soar more than 11 per cent higher when US stock markets open this afternoon – equivalent to more than $190m (£143m) being added to the company value.

For Microsoft, an 8.5 per cent uptick in share price represents around $320m (£241m) boost in market capitalisation and puts it in the $4tn category overall – just the second company to ever reach that milestone after chipmaker Nvidia did so recently.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said the surge was the sort “most companies can only dream of”. He added: “They’ve smashed market forecasts by a country mile and caused investors to scream with joy.”

Labour are adding penalties and new laws for late payments to businesses and smaller suppliers.

The Federation of Small Businesses called the action “bold and ambitious” and backed the government taking the side of SMEs.

The planned new legislation will see maximum payment terms of 60 days, eventually reducing to 45 days, as well as mandatory interest charges on late payments. Businesses who continually pay late could be fined “millions” of pounds.

Keir Starmer said late payment to businesses was “unfair, it’s exhausting and it’s holding Britain back. So, our message is clear: it’s time to pay up.

“We’re not only tackling the scourge of late payments once and for all, but we’re giving small business owners the backing and stability they need for their business to thrive,” he said.

For generations, inheritance was something handed down after death.

Now, amid rule changes meaning more might be taxable, more families are flipping the script.

Instead of waiting for probate and HMRC to take a slice of their hard-earned assets, they’re adopting a new approach: giving while living.

So what’s happening with inheritance tax?

Here’s a quick recap of some of this morning’s reports from some leading UK firms, in case you missed them:

More on Meta, who have been hiring new staff for the AI team at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars over the terms of their contracts.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he aims to deliver “personal superintelligence for everyone”, with billionaire Alexander Wang one of the notable additions after Meta’s investment in Scale.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said:

“Meta has knocked it out of the park. Pick your metric and Meta crushed it, from ad revenue growth to daily users, all the way down to the profit lines.

“AI is clearly delivering real-world benefits for advertisers, and they’re willing to pay more as a result. Average price per ad was up 9% over the quarter, a clear indication that Meta is delivering an improved product for both users and advertisers.

“The broader focus now turns to Meta’s mammoth AI investment plans and whether it can continue to manage those costs without hurting earnings or free cash flow. Clearly, all this spending adds some near-term risks to the bottom line, but Meta looks set to be a clear winner in the AI space over the longer term.”

Rightmove’s mortgage tracker is showing the average two-year fixed rate is level with the five-year rate.

Like most analysts, the mortgage market is expecting an interest rates cut next week from the Bank of England and in turn some movement on the two-year rates.

“It would appear to only be a matter of time before the typical two-year rate is cheaper than the five-year equivalent,” the house ad company says.

Assessing the data, Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said: “Affordability continues to be the number one issue for many aspiring and current homeowners. Therefore, seeing banks continue to improve their mortgage products will be much needed and welcome news for many.

“At a time when people are facing higher taxation connected with property transactions, ever more challenging deposits which are needed and general cost of living increases, a wider variety of more affordable products is essential to help combat and further support consumers.”

By demanding its senior staff ‘set an example’ and be in the office at least four days a week, HSBC has become the latest financial institution to turn against hybrid working – which is bad news for us all, says James Moore.

Two of the Magnificent Seven in the US reported their earnings last night – Microsoft and Meta – and two more follow tonight – Apple and Amazon.

Needless to say, AI expenditure, profits and cutting-edge tech plans were the watchwords and the markets exploded afterwards, both companies adding hundreds of billions to their market capitalisation values.

Meta is up 11 per cent in after hours trading, with Microsoft up 8 per cent.

That equates to not far off half a trillion dollars in value being added in a single night.

“I spent a lot of time building this team this quarter,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The reason so many people are excited to join is because Meta has all of the ingredients required to build leading models and deliver them to billions of people.

“We’re making all these investments because we have conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do.”

The FTSE 100 is up 0.4 per cent this morning, partly on news of some exceptional earnings reports.

It hasn’t made good reading for everyone of course – packaging firm Mondi is down almost 6 per cent for example, while miners Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Glencore are all down between 4 and 5.5 per cent.

But a 9 per cent rise for Rentokil and Rolls Royce shooting up too – that’s pared some gains but still 8.6 per cent higher – has much of the market buoyed.

Around 27 of the 100 companies are in the red this morning, while a full 40 are up at least 0.5 per cent.

Rolls Royce shares jumped more than 10 per cent this morning after profits of around £1.7bn were announced – more than half a billion larger than this time last year.

Profit guidance for the full year has been raised and the share price hit an all-time high today as a result.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said: “Our multi-year transformation continues to deliver. Our actions led to strong first half year results, despite the challenges of the supply chain and tariffs.

“We are continuing to expand the earnings and cash potential of Rolls-Royce.”

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “Rolls-Royce’s near tenfold rally since early 2023 reflects strong execution, rising profits and growing cash returns. Civil Aerospace is delivering, Power Systems is expanding fast, and Defence remains a steady contributor.

“With SMRs offering long-term upside and cash delivery on track, the re-rating may still have legs.”