Oil Shock Meets Rate Cut Hopes: FTSE Slides as Sterling Rises on Geopolitical Crosswinds

Oil surged past $94 per barrel to a three-week high as President Trump escalated his rhetoric against Iran, threatening the "most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country." The FTSE 100 slid 0.46% to 10,693 points in a week low, battered by energy cost fears and a profit warning from JD Sports. Yet sterling somehow managed a six-month high against the dollar, buoyed by the so-called "Bessent effect" as markets recalibrated on US fiscal...