FTSE 100 LIVE: Blue-chip index lurches lower as Wall Street loses its Micron buzz

What a roller coaster ride. After a partial recovery, the FTSE 100 ended the day firmly in the red, down 174 at 10,432.

Brent crude climbed back above $100 a barrel, and the Bank of England's Catherine Mann poured on the rate-rise talk.

She reckons policy is "not sufficiently tight" and that markets may be misreading how the Bank will react.

Banks led the retreat, with HSBC, NatWest and Standard Chartered among those shedding 3% or more.

Nationwide added to the gloom, with house prices unexpectedly falling 0.2% in September.

Rolls-Royce rose 1.2%, one of the few blue chips in the green. October is off to a sour start.

After a brief recovery, the FTSE 100 has slid further, down 178 points, or 1.7%, at 10,428 as the bond market continued to haunt equities.

Wall Street's Micron sugar rush has worn off. The Dow is off 0.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have slipped 0.1% and 0.2% after early gains.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose another 3 basis points to 5.3%, a fresh multi-decade high.

Manufacturing data didn't help, with factory prices surging in September.

Jobless claims fell for a fourth straight week, so the US jobs market is holding up.

Good news for workers; less so for anyone hoping for cheaper money.

The FTSE 100 has clawed back some ground from its session low but remains 88 points in the red.

Wall Street looks set for a calmer start to October.

Dow futures are up 0.3%, the S&P 500 0.2% and the Nasdaq-100 0.5%, with Micron's forecast-beating results lifting tech once again.

The memory chipmaker also raised its outlook, though its own shares barely budged.

Bond yields remain the elephant in the room, with Friday's US jobs report the next big test.

Nike reports after the bell, its shares trading at their lowest since 2014.

Just do it? Investors haven't.

Seven of the UK's 20 most shorted stocks are housing plays, and Monday's "Your First Home" scheme sent them up an average 12.2%, AJ Bell reckons.

Ibstock, the most shorted share on the market, jumped 23.5%, while Genuit rose 15.3% and Taylor Wimpey 14.7%.

Bears scrambling to buy back borrowed stock only added fuel.

Greggs then piled on the pain with a cheery trading update on Wednesday.

AJ Bell's Dan Coatsworth thinks the shorts may yet have the last laugh if interest rates keep climbing.

Base metals started the fourth quarter quietly as China's Golden Week holiday drained liquidity from the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Neil Welsh, head of metals at Britannia Global Markets, said thin trading meant price moves in either direction should be treated with caution.

Light volumes can exaggerate swings that do not reflect genuine conviction, he added.

Copper steadied overnight as traders focused on supply.

Talks to restart First Quantum Minerals' idled mine in Panama are reportedly moving forward.

In Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, workers are pushing for a larger share of higher prices, keeping the risk of labour disruption in view.

Aluminium was the weakest metal on the day, while zinc and lead were broadly flat and nickel and tin edged higher.

Tin leads the year

Copper and zinc were the best performers in the third quarter, each rising about 8%.

Tin has gained around a third so far this year, well ahead of the rest of the market.

Nickel and lead are the only metals in negative territory for the year, with lead held back by persistent worries over demand.

Gold remains supported by high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty.

The FTSE 100 fell 1.9% in early trading as a sell-off in government bonds spilt over into shares.

The yield on 30-year gilts, the return investors demand to lend to the UK government for three decades, rose above 6% for the first time since 1998.

Ten-year gilt yields climbed about seven basis points to 5.50%, and rising yields push up borrowing costs across the economy.

The pressure came despite a fall in oil prices, with Brent crude dipping below $97 a barrel on signs that shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are back to pre-war levels.

Europe was also hit, with Germany's DAX down 1.3% and France's CAC 40 down 1.5%.

French borrowing costs rose sharply ahead of the 2027 draft budget, due to be unveiled by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu today.

Strong US economy spooks markets

In the US, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to a fresh multi-year high above 5.3%.

Inflation figures came in softer than expected, but investors focused instead on signs that the economy is running hot.

Second-quarter growth was revised up to an annualised 2.2% from 1.5%.

Markets are still pricing in four Federal Reserve rate rises over the next year.

The FTSE 100 fell more than 1.7% on the first day of the final quarter, with losses spread across almost every sector.

British American Tobacco dropped more than 3% as a new UK tax on vapes came into force, with ex-dividend trading compounding the decline.

Oil stocks followed crude prices lower, while retailers and financials also struggled.

Polar Capital Technology Trust was a rare riser, alongside gold miners Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo.

The fall leaves the index up 5.1% this year but around 4.5% below its February record, according to Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor.

Balfour Beatty and WPP join the index, replacing Schroders and Beazley, which have been delisted after takeovers.

It marks a return for Balfour Beatty after an absence since 2009, while WPP was relegated in December 2025.

US jobs in focus

In the US, payroll processor ADP said private employers added 90,000 jobs in September, ahead of the 68,000 forecast.

Official non-farm payrolls figures are due on Friday, with economists expecting 85,000 new jobs and unemployment steady at 4.1%.

Hunter said markets now put the chance of another Federal Reserve rate rise this month at 37%.

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 74 points lower on Thursday, out of step with gains across most of Asia.

The divergence reflects the dearth of tech stocks on the London market and its reliance on the natural resources sector.

Exhibit one: Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 3% as chip stocks rallied after Micron Technology, the US memory-chip maker, forecast quarterly revenue ahead of analysts' estimates.

Exhibit 2: South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.7%, helped by figures showing exports up 83.5% year on year as semiconductor shipments hit a record.

Proof: Australia, heavily skewed towards mining, oil and gas, bucked the trend, with the S&P/ASX 200 down nearly 2% after a sharp drop in its August trade surplus.

In the US, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, rose 0.3% in August, below forecasts of 0.4%.

That has eased pressure on the Fed to raise rates again in October.