U.S. equity markets delivered a strong performance over the past week, supported by improving geopolitical sentiment and renewed investor confidence, with all major indices recording gains exceeding 3%.
Octopus Energy reported that its heat pump orders more than doubled in March compared to February, while sales of solar power systems increased by almost 80%. This trend reflects a growing consumer shift towards renewable energy solutions.
Gideon Rabinowitz, the director of policy and advocacy at Bond, stated that severe damage has already been done by aid cuts, which are expected to be the steepest of all G7 countries in the coming year. He emphasized that life-saving humanitarian programmes, including education provision in Syria and healthcare programmes across Africa, have already been forced to close.
Drivers will feel some short-term relief as petrol and diesel prices edge lower, and markets are reacting strongly to the pause. But oil remains elevated, and that continues to feed through the entire economy, into prices, business costs and investment decisions.
Our manifesto sets out a new direction for Wales one rooted in fairness but driven by ambition. We will take action where it is needed most - cutting NHS waiting times, supporting parents with the cost of childcare, raising standards in our schools, and growing a stronger Welsh economy that works for our communities.
Before the Iran war began, a rate cut at the Bank's next meeting on 19 March had been an 80% chance, but policymakers are now expected to wait to see how the conflict develops with a 99% probability of a hold at the meeting and no rate cuts for the rest of 2026, markets indicate.
Like [Keir] Starmer, the chancellor is also fighting for her political life whether because the prime minister himself falls, or chooses to move his chancellor in a reset reshuffle. Against that backdrop, Reeves hopes to project calm and competence next week, after a tumultuous 18 months.
My reforms changed the welfare system to make work pay and brought workless households to an all-time low. But because of the post-Covid collapse in vetting and rise of health-related welfare claims, millions of workers could take home more from welfare than wages after tax. This is an outrageous state of affairs. The system must stop writing off thousands every day and incentives to work need to be restored to end this ruinous waste of human potential.
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Quizzed on whether the proposal, first outlined in Reform UK's 2024 manifesto, remained party policy, Farage replied bluntly: "We are going to do it." "Some of the banks won't like it," he added. "Well, I don't like the banks very much because they debanked me, didn't they? This will be tough for banks to accept, but the drain on public finances is just too great."
