Britain’s Open for Business - and Up for Sale

Nervous Britain, on the block

Britain spent Monday quietly marking itself down. Business investment intentions sank to their lowest since Covid, with just 17% of firms planning to spend more — down from 21% — and the loudest of them warning they're being taxed out of existence. The City's nerves ran deeper: financial-services confidence swung from +65 to -58 in three months, a 123-point drop as the sector braces for Andy Burnham in Number 10 by 20 July. And the blue-chips kept walking out the door — easyJet's board caved to a £5bn, £6.90-a-share buyout from Castlelake, the fifth bid since 12 June, while Sky carved up ITV in a £1.6bn deal that hands a British icon to American owners.

Markets can't decide, and one clean win

Markets, by contrast, couldn't make up their mind — and the reason was two letters. Global indices split as the AI rally stalled, the FTSE dipping 0.2% while Hong Kong rose 1.1% and Foxconn jumped 6%, everyone circling the same question: is AI priced for perfection? That doubt has already bruised the unglamorous names — Intuit, Adobe and Workday, the Nasdaq's worst software stocks of the half, fell up to 60% even as the index gained 11%. Crypto served the sharpest lesson: a Farage-backed Bitcoin venture torched retail buyers, down 36% from the 10p offer while Bitcoin barely moved and the insider in at 5p sat on a gain. The day's one clean win? Football — an England final run could pour £250m into tills, £180m of it over pub bars.

Confidence is draining and the for-sale signs are going up — but England are still in, so the tills aren't empty yet. To the rest of the issue. — M.B.

The best stimulus package in Britain right now isn’t a Budget line — it’s a football team. If Thomas Tuchel’s England reach the World Cup final, fans could spend an extra £250m on retail and home viewing, with £180m of it flowing to pubs squeezed by last year’s tax changes. World Cup spending scales with the scoreline: every England matchday is already worth an extra £20m at the bar. Reach the final in New Jersey, and Britain throws itself one very expensive party.

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Markets can’t make up their mind, and the reason is two letters: AI. Global markets today split as a fragile tech rally ran out of puff — Europe edged up, Seoul and Shanghai slipped, and Hong Kong pushed higher. Underneath sits one nagging question: is the AI trade priced for perfection? After a brutal end to June, investors aren’t fleeing artificial intelligence; they are just asking whether a sector this expensive can keep delivering. Right now, nobody has a clean answer.

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The Nasdaq had a party in the first half of 2026, climbing 11%. These three didn’t get an invite. Intuit, Adobe and Workday, all Nasdaq-100 software names, were the index’s worst performers, down between 37% and a brutal 60%, as investors bet that artificial intelligence will eat their lunch. But here’s the catch: all three are still growing revenue and throwing off cash. So are these beaten-down software stocks bargains hiding in plain sight, or value traps dressed up as deals? The answer hinges on one word: trust.

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Somewhere in the Treasury, an official is watching a football team do more for the high street than the last three Budgets managed — a whole summer of bar tabs, and not a single policy paper to show for it. Sport as stimulus: accidental, temporary, and annoyingly effective. If only the economy came with extra time. — M.B.