Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Zurich’s improved takeover offer for rival insurer Beazley (see earlier post) has driven the London stock exchange to a new record high.
Beazley’s shares are leading the FTSE 100 risers, up 8.6%, helping to push the Footsie over yesterday’s high to a new peak of 10,383 points.
“Novo Nordisk resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the books yesterday evening by trying to sneak out bad news when nobody was watching. But when you’re Europe’s biggest Pharmaceutical company and one of HL’s five shares to watch for 2026, there’s no place to hide. 2025’s number contained no major surprises. Slightly better than expected sales, despite lower than expected pricing, led to an operating result in line with consensus, even as the company ploughed 3% more than forecast into its development programs. On the face of it, 2026 guidance was positive too, but much of that was down to anticipated accounting adjustments.
Underlying guidance (a new and welcome initiative for the company) was for sales and operating profit to fall 5-13% this year, causing the immediate erasing of much of the shares’ strong gains so far in 2026. Donald Trump’s crusade on drug prices, patent expiration, and competition all had their part to play. It wasn’t all bad news, with an extremely strong launch for the Wegovy pill, and a reminder of strong clinical progress in the next-generation pipeline at the tail-end of 2025. But CEO Maziar Doustdar faces some tough questions when he takes the podium in his first full-year earnings call later today, particularly if arch rival Eli Lilly’s results, due before Wall Street’s open, paint a different picture. The hope will be that unlike his predecessor, he’s getting all his bad news out of the way at the beginning of the year.”
