Welcome to the Money blog, Sky News’ personal finance and consumer hub. Today: the FTSE 100 hits a record high; analysis reveals the cost of renting versus home ownership; and a top chef reveals one thing he hates about customers. Sign up to the Money newsletter – landing tomorrow – below.
Thursday 10 July 2025 20:10, UK
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By Adele Robinson, news correspondent
Four people have been arrested by police investigating cyber attacks targeting M&S, Co-op and Harrods.
A 20-year-old woman and two men, both aged 19, and another man aged 17, were detained in London and the West Midlands this morning as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) operation.
They were arrested at their homes on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
Electronic devices were seized from the suspects and are currently being analysed by forensic experts.
M&S halted online orders, and shelves were empty in shops after the cyber attack on the retailer earlier this year.
The initial hack into the retailer’s systems took place in April through “sophisticated impersonation” involving a third party.
The Co-op and Harrods were also subsequently targeted by hackers.
Read on here…
Coffee lovers in the UK, and indeed the rest of the world, have been hit with a succession of major price increases over the past two years.
Arabica coffee prices increased by 70% in 2024 and another 20% in the first two months of 2025 to reach a record high of £3.12 per pound in February.
Between early 2023 and the end of 2024, Arabica prices increased by 190%, while cheaper Robusta beans increased by 263% over the same period.
Italian coffee giant Lavazza said the huge increases were driven by a “perfect storm” of droughts in Brazil and Vietnam significantly impacting coffee production and ongoing geopolitical disruption increasing transportation costs and delivery times.
The soaring costs have seen many UK consumers shifting their coffee consumption from cafes to home kitchens.
But Lavazza chairman Giuseppe Lavazza indicated the situation could be about to stabilise for Java junkies.
“We think that the market reached a peak at the beginning of this year,” he said.
“It is our hope that the price for the consumer has peaked.”
High prices have not dented the “strong trend” of UK consumers turning to beans to make fresh coffee at home, which began when the pandemic closed cafes.
The UK retail coffee market, valued at £1.7bn, has seen at-home consumption rise by 5.7% on the year to date as consumers shift from cafe to kitchen, Lavazza added.
By James Sillars, business and economics reporter
The FTSE 100 has hit a new record closing high.
The index of leading shares in London gained 1.2%, or 108 points, to end the day at 8,975.
Miners led the way – gaining some support on the so-called TACO trade: Trump always chickens out.
It’s based on the theory that the US president’s latest tariff threats will not be followed through, or result in a massive shock for the global economy ahead.
He’s sent letters to more than 20 nations so far, informing them of their delayed “liberation day” rates – now due to kick in from 1 August.
High copper prices, caused by the Trump threat of 50% tariffs, have also contributed to the mining rally underpinning the market.
Boosting the FTSE too has been a recent easing in the value of the pound against the dollar.
The bulk of the most valuable FTSE 100 constituents earn most of their revenues abroad.
A weaker pound – down by almost two cents at $1.35 in the month to date – means those sales are worth more when booked back in the UK.
At 8,975, the FTSE is now firmly in sight of the 9,000 mark.
It’s up almost 10% in the year to date, despite the wobbles for values largely caused by Trump’s on-off trade war.
The equivalent of more than one pub a day is set to close in Great Britain this year, an industry body has warned.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, an estimated 378 venues will shut in England, Wales and Scotland, amounting to more than 5,600 direct job losses.
The association has called for a reduction in the cumulative tax and regulatory burden for the hospitality sector – including cutting business rates and beer duty.
The body – representing members that brew 90% of British beer and own more than 20,000 pubs – said such measures would slow the rate at which bars are closing.
Read on here…
First-time buyers will get a boost next week when the chancellor launches a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to help those with deposits as low as 5%.
The Conservatives launched a similar temporary scheme during the pandemic that expired at the end of June.
Rachel Reeves will confirm the government-backed scheme in her Mansion House speech on 15 July, officials briefed on her plans told the Financial Times.
“The scheme will be permanently available, ending the stop-start availability of the existing, temporary scheme and giving lenders confidence to offer these mortgage products through the economic cycle,” Emma Reynolds, City minister, said.
The Freedom to Buy scheme will see lenders pay a fee to the Treasury to protect them against losses in the event of repossession for 95% loan-to-value mortgages.
The fees are intended to cover potential liabilities – a cap on liabilities has been set at £3.2bn, the same level the Conservatives used in 2022.
By Wilfred Frost, Sky News presenter
Nvidia became the first company to hit a market capitalisation of $4trn yesterday afternoon.
The question from here is whether the chip giant can occupy that rarefied atmosphere for long.
Speaking on The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, legendary investor Jeremy Grantham, the founder and chairman of GMO, strikes a bearish tone towards hopes the company can hold that level long term.
Asked whether Nvidia could fall from its all-time high as much as Amazon did from its dot com bubble peak (-90%) at the turn of the century, Grantham says: “It’s not just possible. I don’t think it’s nearly probable. I think at the very least, it’s highly probable.
“It is the guy selling the shovels at the peak of the gold rush, isn’t it? This is one hell of a gold rush.”
Grantham is an expert in stock market bubbles who has correctly predicted the four biggest bubbles of the past five decades, but he acknowledges “you can’t possibly call a bubble or a bust to the right day, except once every several lifetimes by sheer luck.
“What you can do, though, is identify bubbles that will eventually burst.”
‘Fighting tooth and nail’
He expands on why he thinks we are at a turning point for America’s highest valued tech stocks, known as the Magnificent Seven, and that is due to rising competition.
“They have no magical monopoly power in the end. And one of the things that’s happening in the Mag 7 is AI is turning out to be the first to suck every one of the seven in,” he says.
“We have watched over the last years on things like the cloud where one or two or three go in, but now all seven realise that AI is the game. And that means competition.
“This means the history of the Mag-7 is divided into two halves. The half up until now where basically they each individually owned an area and the half going forward where increasingly they fight it out tooth and nail to see who is the biggest and best in AI.
So what does this mean for the broader S&P 500 – will it be lower in a decade than it is today as it was after the dot com peak? “Let’s put it this way, I think it’s quite likely.”
So where does he think people should invest?
“If you’re feeling up for taking risk, I would put a lot of money outside the US in equities.
“And if you’re feeling very nervous, I would have cash or some blend of those two.
“Sometimes everything goes together – that was not true in 2000. Real estate was very cheap. Bonds were very cheap. Inflation protected tips yielded 4.3%, can you believe it, right at the market peak. And foreign stocks were not that expensive.
“The same is true today. You could buy a portfolio of European, Canada, Australian, and so on, and the rest of the world. And you will do OK.”
Listen to the full episode of The Master Investor with Wilfred Frost here or wherever you enjoy podcasts.
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
The UK’s benchmark stock index hit another trading day high shortly after 10am this morning, thanks to big rises in mining company share prices.
The miners benefitted from confirmation from the Trump administration it would slap a 50% tariff on copper, like steel and aluminium.
It caused the FTSE 100 index, of the 100 most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange, to rise more than 1%.
The index had closed at a record high on 12 June as high oil costs boosted the fossil fuel producers like BP and Shell that make up the index.
That high close may well be beaten at 4.30pm this afternoon when markets close.
Despite the dollar weakening, after the latest signal that US interest rates could remain high, sterling has dropped.
A pound fell below $1.36 and €1.16. In recent weeks the one pound bought $1.37 and €1.18.
The cost of getting to the airport is an often overlooked holiday expense.
Fewer than one in four (23%) of holidaymakers check whether a taxi or airport parking is cheaper, according to Confused.com.
Their research found the answer depended on which part of the UK you’re flying from.
The average UK traveller pays £92 for a round trip via taxi, while the average four-day airport short stay in England costs £110.
In Wales, there’s not much in it, with the average short stay setting travellers back £88.
But in Scotland and Northern Ireland, it’s considerably cheaper to avoid taxis, with short stays costing £58 and £63 respectively.
Long stays tell a more uniform story, with all nations of the UK coming in cheaper than taxi trips on average:
Renters in England could miss out on hundreds of thousands in potential wealth, research shows.
Over 30 years, homeowners save £206,000 in housing costs alone on average across 10 cities analysed by the Mortgage Advice Bureau.
This doesn’t even take into account house price appreciation, and if homeowners invested their savings in a FTSE 100 tracker fund with a 5% compound interest return, the wealth gap increases to £338,170.
“The perception that buying a home is always less affordable than renting simply doesn’t reflect what our data is showing across the country,” said Ben Thompson, deputy chief executive of MAB.
In London, the potential financial gap between renting and buying rises to £540,687, and in Bristol, £573,110 due to greater savings on bills.
The table below shows the difference between 10 major UK cities…
Just under 50% of employers plan to charge customers more to mitigate higher taxes, figures show.
A survey by S&P Global found 36% would lay off staff and 9% would cut wages to absorb the cost of the rise in employers national insurance contributions (NIC).
The rate increased from 13.8% to 15% in April, and the bosses were told they had to start paying NIC when employees earned over £5,000, down from £9,100.
Passing the cost to consumers would work against the Bank of England’s attempts to bring inflation down to 2% – it’s at 3.4%.
Last month, Bank governor Andrew Bailey said the NIC rise was leading to a market slowdown.
“Firms’ margins are the first to adjust. But I am beginning to hear a bit more evidence of adjustments through pay and employment,” he said.
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