London open: Stocks edge down as investors mull Trump tariffs; JMAT tumbles

(Sharecast News) - London stocks edged lower in early trade on Monday after US President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he would be introduce a new 15% global tariff in response to the US Supreme Court's ruling on Friday.

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 10,667.92.

Trump said on Friday that he would introduce a new 10% global tariff, but this was upped to 15% on Saturday. In a post on Truth Social, the US President said the new tariffs would be "effective immediately".

He wrote: "I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been 'ripping' the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level."

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The UK had seemingly done its homework, securing a 10% trade deal with the US, but the White House's new 15% blanket tariff rather takes the shine off that achievement, dragging the UK back into fresh trade uncertainty.

"The new tariff uses a different legal authority, but it is a far blunter instrument than the flexible, targeted tools the administration had been relying on. While the White House insists that all existing trade deals remain intact, the EU is already making noises about pausing negotiations until the new landscape becomes clearer.

"Wall Street ended last week on a high after the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration's use of its preferred tariff powers, with investors quickly repricing the outlook for lower effective tariff rates. That optimism is fading somewhat this morning, however, with US futures pointing lower as the dust settles and investors strap back in for another wave of tariff uncertainty."

However, Britzman said that taking a step back, there's an argument this is a positive development for investors.

"The Supreme Court ruling was largely expected and sends an unambiguous signal that there are limits to the executive's power over trade and tariffs," he said. "Tariff headlines will no doubt continue to dominate the news cycle, but the goalposts have shifted - the near-unlimited use of tariffs under the old powers has come to an end, and for markets that have spent months toying with worst-case scenarios, that's a small silver lining."

In equity markets, Johnson Matthey tumbled after saying it had agreed to cut almost half a billion pounds from the sale price of its catalyst technologies business to Honeywell after reports the American conglomerate was thinking about walking away from the deal.

Honeywell will now pay �1.33bn, down from the previously agreed �1.8bn last May as Johnson Matthey moves to focus on its car pollution filters platinum group metals processing businesses. Bloomberg on Sunday reported Honeywell was considering walking away because of concerns over regulatory approvals and business milestones.

Rio Tinto nudged down after it was downgraded to 'neutral' on valuation concerns by Goldman Sachs, which also cut its price target to 7,400p from 7,900p.

On the upside, JD Sports Fashion rallied after saying it was returning �200m to shareholders through share buybacks in its 2026/27 financial year.

MoneySuperMarket owner Mony Group rallied as it reiterated guidance despite "significant" headwinds in car insurance weighing on annual earnings.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,667.92 -0.18%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,660.88 -0.38%

techMARK (TASX) 6,105.47 -0.65%

FTSE 100 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 80.94p 3.53%

Fresnillo (FRES) 3,952.00p 2.54%

Prudential (PRU) 1,146.50p 1.19%

St James's Place (STJ) 1,297.00p 1.01%

Barclays (BARC) 477.85p 0.85%

Legal & General Group (LGEN) 277.10p 0.84%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 4,800.00p 0.54%

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 464.50p 0.54%

Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,811.00p 0.50%

BT Group (BT.A) 204.10p 0.49%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,426.00p -5.96%

Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 8,840.00p -1.93%

ICG (ICG) 1,705.00p -1.90%

Whitbread (WTB) 2,689.00p -1.50%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,788.00p -1.47%

3i Group (III) 3,350.00p -1.44%

BAE Systems (BA.) 2,134.00p -1.43%

Melrose Industries (MRO) 663.40p -1.43%

Mondi (MNDI) 914.00p -1.34%

The Sage Group (SGE) 808.60p -1.29%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Mony Group (MONY) 157.20p 2.81%

Quilter (QLT) 193.30p 2.71%

Endeavour Mining (EDV) 4,824.00p 2.42%

Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 390.50p 2.06%

BioPharma Credit (BPCR) 0.95p 1.94%

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 750.00p 1.83%

Me Group International (MEGP) 146.40p 1.67%

Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 205.20p 1.48%

Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 830.00p 1.34%

Pan African Resources (PAF) 170.20p 1.31%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,968.00p -14.58%

NCC Group (NCC) 128.40p -3.31%

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 131.80p -3.09%

Playtech (PTEC) 338.50p -2.45%

Trustpilot Group (TRST) 138.20p -2.40%

Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 291.00p -2.35%

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 775.00p -2.15%

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 57.50p -2.13%

Softcat (SCT) 1,109.00p -2.12%

THG (THG) 34.50p -1.93%