Business news live: FTSE 100 rises and Tesla poised to gain $25bn after Elon Musk apology

Gold is holding steady today, up just about a third of a percent, at $3354.

The price is tipped above $3400 a couple of times this year already, so we’re not quite at all time high territory, but after a 45% rise over the last year a little consolidation is no surprise.

Most analysts still expect it to rise higher towards $3800 later this year.

Meanwhile, silver is down 0.4% today, and crude oil is 1.4% up – continuing gains over the last month which now stand at 8%, having dropped as low as $57 in early May.

The FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 are not the UK’s only markets of course – the AIM has long been a key arena for growing companies to thrive in, and for investors to seek outsized gains in by way of carrying more risk.

It is getting smaller though, but as as AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth points out, that isn’t necessarily all a bad thing.

“AIM turns 30 on 19 June and its celebrations have been overshadowed by the shrinking number of companies on the market. While it is natural to see the tail end disappear as tiny companies cannot justify the cost of being listed, and takeovers across the market continue with pace, there is an underappreciated trend elsewhere.

“The number of AIM companies shifting their listing to London’s Main Market so far in 2025 is near a three-year high and we’re not even halfway through the year.

“If all the intended companies complete their transfer in the coming months, it would be the same number of transfers so far this year as the total number of stocks moving from AIM to the Main Market across 2023 and 2024 combined.

“Importantly, this trend is not necessarily a negative factor. One could argue AIM was designed to act as a stepping stone to the Main Market and it’s a positive that companies feel they’ve reached a level of maturity to move to the premier league.

“Since 2004, AJ Bell calculates that 130 companies have moved from AIM to the Main Market. Many are now in the top tier indices and others have been taken over at a big premium to the market price.”

Rachel Reeves will vow to “invest in Britain’s renewal” as she reveals her spending plans for the coming years on Wednesday.

The Chancellor is expected to announce big increases in spending on the NHS, defence and schools as part of a spending review set to include £113 billion of investment thanks to looser borrowing rules.

She will also reveal changes to the Treasury’s “green book” rules that govern which projects receive investment in an effort to boost spending outside London and the South East.

Arguing that this investment is “possible only because of the stability I have introduced” after the October budget, Ms Reeves is expected to say her spending review will “ensure that renewal is felt in people’s everyday lives, their jobs, their communities”.

Related to Mr Musk’s latest social media posts or not, Tesla are set for an uplift this afternoon when US markets open.

Having surged more than 5% higher yesterday, the EV maker is set to open another 2.5% higher this afternoon – equivalent to around $24bn (£17.8bn) in market capitalisation for the trillion-dollar company.

Perhaps of more relevance to that uplift is Elon Musk revealing that Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis will be offered to the public from 22 June.

“The date could shift” due to safety matters still, he added – and later this month new Teslas will also self-drive themselves from factory to customer home for the first time.

Tesla owner Elon Musk has taken to his social media platform X to say he “regret[s] some of my posts about” President Trump.

Last week the pair got into what amounted to a petty slanging match worth billions of dollars.

Tesla shares are up 2.5% in pre-trading but remain down almost 20% in 2025.

Here’s a quick roundup of this morning’s company news:

Rolls Royce expects thousands of jobs to be created after being selected by the government to build the first three SMRs – small modular reactors – in the push for nuclear power.

Shares in the company are up 57% across 2025 so far and hit an all time high during trading yesterday, before pulling back.

They are up more than 1.5%this morning to 849p per share.

Each SMR are expected to produce power for a million homes for 60 years.

Two days of talking in London has seen Washington and Beijing reach an agreement of sorts over a trade truce.

The US and China have agreed “in principle” over a framework and how to implement it.

That led to Asian markets rising overnight, the Hang Seng up 0.77% and the Nikkei 225 rising 0.55%.

US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said: “The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.”

A new type of stock market will open in the UK later this year, allowing investors to trade shares in privately-owned companies — as opposed to those that are publicly owned and listed, for example on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Referred to as Pisces — which stands for a Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System — the first trading could begin on the new stock market in the next few months after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved the rules around it.

The FCA hopes the move will support the UK economy by giving more choices to the investment community and attracting new funds for growing businesses.

Although Pisces has already officially launched, trading cannot begin until companies who will act as operators start their platforms, which are subject to licences.

With more companies choosing to stay private for longer, the new trading system was created to give investors access to businesses they otherwise could not fund, and to allow those holding shares in private businesses the chance to cash out.

That can be as a result of shares being given as part of an employment package, for example, or by being an investor in an earlier round of private fundraising — which isn’t always accessible to private investors.

Evri’s deal to merge with rival DHL’s UK parcel arm is being investigated by the UK competition watchdog as the tie-up promises to create one of the UK’s largest delivery firms.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will look into whether the deal could “result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the postal delivery sector.

It is initially gathering comments on the tie-up, with a deadline for submissions of June 25, before formally launching its investigation.