Retail sales fall; Trump attacks JP Morgan

Good morning and welcome back to AM City live blog.

Today is the last day of the World Economic Forum in Davos and it has been an extraordinary ride for capital markets.

The FTSE 100 started Monday’s trading session at 10,235.31 before dropping several points as Trump stepped up pressure over his threat of tariffs on his NATO partners.

Even though the market is bracing for disruption, it has not yet turned into a full-blown mess as many investors are looking for TACO.

It’s true that the phrase ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ (TACO) – a phrase coined in the wake of the US ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in 2025 – is making a comeback in markets as investors bet on a pullback.

But on Tuesday, this appeared less likely to happen after EU officials and Trump became embroiled in a heated war of words.

The European Union promised an “unwavering” response to Trump’s tariffs and Trump said he would “100 percent” impose new tariffs on European countries if no deal was made for Greenland.

The FTSE 100 sank to a low of 10,055.57 and failed to make any meaningful gains until Trump promised not to take over Greenland by force – even then investors’ mood remained shaken.

Although all that changed with one Truth Social post where Trump announced a “framework” deal had been created and tariffs on NATO would be reduced as a result.

London’s blue-chip index bounced back Thursday morning on the news before giving up some of its gains in subsequent trading.

With tariffs out of the way and awaiting updates on Trump’s Greenland deal, will things return to business as usual in the city – or will Trump have other geopolitical cards up his sleeve that he doesn’t know about?

We’ll bring you the top news and analysis this morning.

Meanwhile, here are some of our top stories from yesterday: