FTSE 100 today: Stocks fall as HSBC slides, budget and Fed caution

British stocks fell on Tuesday as HSBC slid over 6% after third-quarter profit narrowly missed forecasts, while caution before this week’s UK Budget and Federal Reserve decision outweighed hopes that Middle East diplomacy could avert renewed U.S.-Iran conflict.

The FTSE 100 was down 1% as of 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT). Germany’s DAX fell 0.19% and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.40%. Sterling slipped 0.14% to $1.3323.

HSBC was the biggest drag on the index, hitting an intraday low of 1269.20p. Pretax profit rose 32% to $9.63 billion but fell short of a consensus of about $9.7 billion, and its CET1 capital ratio slipped to 13.9% from 14.1%, overshadowing a $1 billion buyback and a 10-cent dividend.

Banks followed, with Standard Chartered down 1.74%, NatWest down 1.02% and Barclays down 0.17%.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused Washington of “not being serious” about negotiations, with spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei saying Tehran had “never closed the door” to diplomacy.

President Masoud Pezeshkian was heading to Russia for talks. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre reported a vessel on fire 63 nautical miles southeast of al-Faw, Iraq.

Overnight, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted three Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at the Eastern Province and four drones headed for southern Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh reissued its call for non-emergency staff to leave the kingdom, citing Iranian-supported Houthi attacks. A supreme leader’s aide, Abdollah Haji Sadeghi, warned further U.S. action would meet a “harsher and more devastating” response.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a campaign in Mississippi on Monday said that Iran “started the war” and called an earlier ceasefire “a waste of time.”

Trump has ruled out strikes before the Nov. 3 midterms, while Jefferies sees risk of fresh strikes around or after the vote. Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish officials met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday, ending without concrete announcements but agreeing to continue talks. Israel votes today.

Shop price inflation rose to 2.1% in October from 1.4%, a 2.5-year high, the British Retail Consortium said. Chief executive Helen Dickinson told the Chancellor to “act now” before Wednesday’s Budget.
“Optically we see the Chancellor sticking to the fiscal rules and the budget would be more of a clearing event. However, we remain worried about the medium term fiscal situation in the UK. We are still staying away from the long end and have a long position in the front end of the curve,” said Mohit Kumar, Chief European Economist at Jefferies in a note.

Brent crude for January rose 0.57% to $111.36 a barrel and WTI for December rose 0.60% to $102.36. December gold futures fell 0.63% to $4,013.27 an ounce, with spot down 0.41% at $4,000.15.

UK round up

Reckitt cut its annual revenue growth forecast to 3.5% to 4.5% after third-quarter like-for-like revenue growth of 3.3% missed expectations, as North American manufacturing constraints weighed on sales.

Vistry appointed Severn Trent CFO Helen Miles as its next finance chief, with her appointment due to take effect in 2027.

NCC Group appointed CFO Guy Ellis as CEO as it forecast fiscal 2026 adjusted core profit ahead of expectations following the sale of Escode.

Informa cut its full-year underlying revenue growth outlook to around 3% from 6% as Middle East tensions forced further event rescheduling, while reaffirming its earnings growth target.