G7 nations call for Houthis to cease attacks

22. Sep 2026

(AWP Alliance News) - European equities are called up as Brent prices continue to hold firm above USD100 on Tuesday.

Here is what you need to know before the European market open on Tuesday:

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MARKETS

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CAC 40: called up 9.3 points, 0.1%, at 8,148.24

DAX 40: called up 47.9 points, 0.2%, at 25,622.91

FTSE 100: called up 17.5 points, 0.2%, at 10,756.51

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Hang Seng: up 0.4% at 25,153.85

Nikkei 225: up 1.7% at 65,018.95

S&P/ASX 200: unchanged at 8,735.60

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DJIA: closed up 366.19 points, 0.7%, at 52,048.83

S&P 500: closed up 114.20 points, 1.5%, at 7,764.70

Nasdaq Composite: closed up 599.55 points, 2.3%, at 27,122.09

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US 10-year Treasury yield: 4.95% (4.97%)

US 30-year Treasury yield: 5.28% (5.30%)

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EUR: higher at USD1.1474 (USD1.1470)

GBP: higher at USD1.3381 (USD1.3372)

USD: higher at JPY157.48 (JPY157.46)

gold: lower at USD4,342.9 per ounce (USD4,352.65)

oil (Brent): higher at USD101.15 a barrel (USD100.28)

(changes since previous London equities close)

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ECONOMIC CALENDAR

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11:00 IST Ireland wholesale prices

09:00 CEST Switzerland current account

07:00 BST UK public sector net borrowing

10:00 EDT US Richmond Fed manufacturing index

16:00 CEST eurozone consumer confidence

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TOP ECONOMIC NEWS

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The foreign ministers of the G7 condemned the "unacceptable continued strikes" waged from Yemen against Saudi Arabia and urged the Iran-backed group to immediately hold fire. "We call on the Houthis to immediately cease all military actions, all threats and attacks against civilian shipping, and to return to the political process in good faith," the leaders representing Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US said in a statement. They also called on Iran "to end its arming of and support for the Houthis," alleging Tehran is in violation of past United Nations Security Council resolutions.

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US television networks staged an extraordinary revolt Monday when they effectively boycotted coverage of President Donald Trump in protest at his decision to ban three leading outlets from the White House. CNN, MS Now and Politico also went to court after Trump on Friday ordered them to be barred, as the 80-year-old Republican stepped up his years-long assault on the US media. As a result of the row, Trump's opening of his cherished new White House helipad and his trip to the UN General Assembly were proceeding without live television coverage. In a rare move, the top five US broadcasters said on Monday that they were halting "pool" coverage of the White House - where a broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day - in solidarity with CNN.

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Hundreds of flights from US east coast airports were cancelled or delayed Monday due to a telecommunications line outage caused by a construction mistake, US officials said. Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters that a telecommunications line went down between Newark and New Brunswick, taking down key radar and radio systems needed for air traffic control. Around 1900 GMT, Newark Airport in New Jersey, a key New York City airport, had 168 flights cancelled and 97 delayed, while Philadelphia had 63 cancelled flights and 189 delays, according to FlightAware.

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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to give military support to Saudi Arabia in its struggle against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Burnham said British planes will provide "defensive" air-to-air refuelling for Saudi jets. He said he made the decision after discussions with Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband amid fears that the deepening Middle East crisis will add to cost pressures facing British households. Speaking to reporters as he travelled to the UN General Assembly in New York, the prime minister said: "We have received a request from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for military support. "On the advice of the defence secretary and the foreign secretary, last night I agreed to that request for defensive air-to-air refuelling. That's the agreement we've given."

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EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas urged the bloc's member states to maintain sanctions targeting Russia over the war on Ukraine, as countries work to push through an extension. "Sanctions are a core pillar of our response to Russia's war" to deprive Moscow of funding, she told reporters in New York after a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers. Kallas stressed that the EU's position has not changed: "That's why we are also working on a new package of sanctions." But discussions on the matter are ongoing as some member states sought to remove certain individuals from the bloc's blacklist. EU countries failed Monday to finalise a deal that involved lifting sanctions on Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman. Negotiations are set to continue in Brussels, in efforts to extend sanctions on almost 3,000 other individuals and entities over the war.

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The German government is pressing ahead with plans for a fuel rebate aimed at easing high petrol and diesel prices, approving a draft law on the measure, a government spokesperson said. From October 1 to December 31, the energy tax on petrol and diesel is to be cut by around 14 euro cents per litre. Including value added tax, motorists could save up to 17 cents per litre at the pump, according to the government. The Finance Ministry expects the measure to reduce tax revenues by EUR2.48 billion, with Germany's federal states set to bear half of the cost. The government hopes the rebate will cushion the sharp rise in fuel prices since the outbreak of the Iran war. A similar rebate was introduced in May and June and helped curb prices at petrol stations, although fuel companies did not pass the full tax reduction on to motorists.

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COMPANY CALENDAR

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Aberdeen Group PLC - dividend payment date

BlackRock Inc - dividend payment date

Centrica PLC - dividend payment date

Kainos Group PLC - AGM

Kingfisher PLC - half year results

Smiths Group PLC - full year results

Suncorp Group Ltd - dividend payment date

Tui AG - trading statement

UnitedHealth Group Inc - dividend payment date

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TOP COMPANY NEWS

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Alibaba Group is rolling out what it calls the most powerful Chinese artificial intelligence chip, Bloomberg reported. The Hangzhou, China-based e-commerce and AI and cloud-focused technology company said the new Zhenwu V900 accelerator triples the performance of its predecessor. Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said the new chip can be combined into clusters of up to 500,000 to power frontier AI model training, according to the Bloomberg report. Wu also set a target for the company to achieve 20 gigawatts of data centre capacity for the Alibaba Cloud service globally by 2032.

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Paramount Skydance has reached a settlement with a group of US states that clears the way for its takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, US media reported Monday, creating a Hollywood empire spanning television, news and cinema. Paramount, which is run by David Ellison, whose ultra-wealthy family has ties to US President Donald Trump, won a bidding war in February for control of a stable of assets, including Warner Bros Pictures, CNN and the HBO Max streaming service. The Trump administration approved the deal, one of the largest media mergers in years, in June without demanding a change to its business, before 12 US states sued to block the transaction. Paramount beat out Netflix in a high-stakes bidding war to acquire Warner Bros, with financing that reportedly includes about USD24 billion in equity from sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. David Ellison's father, billionaire Oracle-founder Larry Ellison, provided funding and a crucial guarantee for the deal. Opponents in the movie industry said the combined company would slash jobs in a Hollywood already under pressure and reduce the number of films produced every year, while news media groups feared CNN's independence could be compromised.

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British Columbia filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California over the company's failure to report violent activity on its ChatGPT service by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province. British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters the suit is seeking "accountability and change" from OpenAI, which previously apologised for not flagging the account linked to an 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge.

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German carmaker Volkswagen intends to step up the pace of its core VW brand's ongoing cost-cutting programme, Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Thomas Schafer said at a staff meeting in Wolfsburg on Monday. "We have absolutely no time to lose and will therefore significantly ramp up our performance programme once again," said Schafer, as employees in the German car industry held protests nationwide to call on management to secure jobs. The Volkswagen Group, Europe's largest carmaker, has warned that a further 50,000 jobs could be cut worldwide, around half of which would hit Germany. At the core VW brand, an agreement was reached at the end of 2024 to reduce overcapacity at German sites, lower labour costs and bring development costs down to a competitive level. Schafer said around 16,300 redundancies have been finalised in Germany, with a total of just under 28,800 agreed upon by 2030, close to the target of 35,000. He called the developments "good progress," but warned that the measures are insufficient.

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Morgan Stanley said its 1GT private climate equity strategy led a EUR49 million Series E financing round for Amber Electric. The New York City-based bank said the funding will "support [Amber's] continued growth and expansion in Europe." Amber Electric, a Melbourne-based energy retailer serving Australian households, is Australia's largest battery automation provider. "By optimising distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, residential batteries and electric vehicles, while enabling access to wholesale energy markets, Amber helps to improve grid efficiency, integrate renewable energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuel-based generation," commented Morgan Stanley.

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Puma announced that Fokko de Rooij would take over as managing director for the European region. The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based sportswear company said de Rooij will assume his role on October 1. "Fokko is an experienced international leader with a strong track record in sales, retail, supply chain and transformation management, built through various senior leadership roles at Nike across EMEA, China and in the global team," said Puma. Rooij was employed by Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc for more than 20 years. Further, the company announced that Daniel Pustina named managing director for Cluster Central with immediate effect. "Daniel has been with Puma in various roles since 2020, most recently as Managing Director Oceania based in Melbourne," said the company. "Before moving to Australia, he held several leadership roles covering DACH and Central Europe."

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Microchip Technology announced the completion of its acquisition of Hailo Technologies. The Chandler, Arizona-based semiconductor company said the Hailo acquisition "advances Microchip's strategy to enable intelligent, connected systems at the edge and expands its ability to deliver complete solutions for Edge AI, machine vision, robotics and Physical AI applications." Hailo is a Tel Aviv-based provider of AI processors, vision processors, robotics processors and AI software technologies. Microchip will support Hailo's product portfolio, software environment and customer engagements, according to Microchip. "Hailo strengthens our ability to deliver complete, production-ready platforms that enable customers to deploy intelligent systems at scale," said Steve Sanghi, chief executive and chair of Microchip Technology.

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Bellevue Gold said it swung to an annual profit in its 2026 financial year, as it announced plans to increase exploration in financial year 2027. The Perth, Australia-based miner posted net profit after tax of AUD7.1 million, or USD5.1 million, for the year ended June 30, swinging from a net loss of AUD45.9 million the year prior. Bellevue said 83,400 ounces of gold were hedged lower than gold spot prices. The firm said it will close its hedge book in financial year 2027, giving full exposure to the spot price. The firm said revenue was AUD576.2 million for the period, increasing 14% from AUD505.8 million in the previous year. Bellevue said it sold 142,000 ounces of gold over the period, at an average of AUD4,058 per ounce. Earnings per share were 0.47 Australian cents per share, swinging from a loss per share of 3.50 cents a year ago.

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Deutz announced a strategic partnership with Hypercraft to expand their cooperation across unmanned ground vehicles and mobile drive systems. Deutz, a Cologne, Germany-based combustion engine manufacturer, said the collaboration with the Provo, Utah-based software-defined UGV company has been outlined in a new memorandum of understanding. The two firms will develop Hypercraft's Razorback UGV and discuss joint development and commercialisation opportunities of future platforms and system solutions. Hypercraft Chief Executive Officer Brian Bowers said opportunities for customers in the US, Europe and other markets will be considered.

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By Harvey Dorset, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom [at] alliancenews.com