🚀 UK stocks outperform US in 2025

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Market Overview
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Year To Date Performances:

1. As we approach the end of 2025, the FTSE 100 has emerged as an unlikely global leader, outperforming major Wall Street averages for the first time in years as investors pivoted from U.S. tech valuations toward the UK’s resilience. Driven by a massive resurgence in banking, energy, and defence sectors, alongside a "buyback bonanza" and record corporate profits, the index breached the historic 9,000-point mark this summer and is currently on track for a total return of nearly 18% to 19%. With heavyweights like JP Morgan and AJ Bell forecasting up to 10% further upside and fresh record highs of 10,750 in 2026, the London market has shed its "Jurassic Park" reputation, positioning itself as a stable, high-yield haven amidst ongoing global trade uncertainty and AI valuation jitters across the Atlantic.

2. U.S. stock futures rose Sunday night, with Dow futures up 100 points, as Wall Street prepares for a holiday-shortened week and the potential arrival of a "Santa Claus rally." Investor sentiment has been buoyed by news that Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake have signed binding agreements to form a new U.S. joint venture for TikTok, effectively preventing a domestic ban. While tech stocks like Nvidia and Oracle saw a late-week resurgence, the S&P 500 continues to battle a key technical resistance level at 6,900, with many investors rotating into "old economy" sectors like financials and industrials as they brace for 2026.

3. Alphabet-owned Waymo has indefinitely suspended its driverless robotaxi operations across the San Francisco Bay Area following a massive blackout. The blackout exposed a significant technical vulnerability in fully autonomous systems, as fleet vehicles became "frozen" at unlit traffic signals, causing widespread gridlock that required manual intervention from police and fire crews to clear emergency routes. While Elon Musk claimed Tesla’s ride-hailing service remained unaffected, city regulators noted a critical distinction: Tesla’s current local operations rely on human safety drivers who can manually navigate dark intersections, whereas Waymo’s Level 4 driverless software opted for a "minimal risk" fail-safe that effectively grounded the fleet, sparking renewed debate over the resilience of autonomous infrastructure in the face of foreseeable urban emergencies.

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