A Financial Times report that the UK government was looking to raise windfall tax on oil and gas producers to improve public finances also added pressure on commodity stocks. As a result, the FTSE 100 was down 0.9% at 9am.

Among stocks, miner Glencore fell 3.4% after it said it expects a drop in adjusted core earnings for its trading unit in H2, due to supply chain issues and weather conditions.

In other news, Elon Musk completed its Twitter takeover, tweeting early this morning: “the bird is freed”. He has already fired three top executives, including chief executive Parag Agrawal.

Meanwhile, Amazon shares tumbled 20% after its third quarter earnings missed expectations.

 

Things to read today:

No “adults in the room”: Xi Jinpin catches global investors off-guard (Financial Times)

Musk Fires Top Twitter Executives After Closing $44 Billion Deal (Bloomberg)