11:49 AM EDT, 10/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- British equities extended losses on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 index closing 0.31% lower as investors weighed political uncertainty, rising oil prices and government borrowing costs. The UK said it will deploy fighter jets to help defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, following a series of strikes in recent weeks. Meanwhile, French authorities implemented partial curfews in Paris and other cities after widespread damage and thousands of arrests over the weekend. Additionally, violent protests over living costs and education were reported across Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. At home, Britain's unemployment rate eased to 4.7% in the three months to August, from 4.9% in the prior three-month period, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Analysts expected the jobless rate to remain stable at 4.9%. Meanwhile, payroll employment increased by 12,600 in September, beating the consensus estimate of a decline of 8,000. Average weekly pay, including bonuses, rose 3.7% year over year in the quarter to August, slower than a 3.9% increase in the prior three-month period. "Limited demand for staff should ensure wage growth remains subdued, at least outside the public sector," Berenberg said. "The 3-month average of private sector average weekly earnings excluding bonuses rose by 3% yoy in August, up from 2.9% in July but below the 31/4% pace that the [Bank of England] deems consistent with 2% CPI inflation. With productivity growth strong and the jump in non-wage labour costs now in the rear-view mirror, more limited labour cost pressures should facilitate a downtrend in services price inflation. As a result, we still think that the 25 [basis point] increase in the BoE policy rate we predict on 5 November will prove to be a solitary move rather than the start of a new tightening cycle." In corporate news, some services operated by lenders HSBC (HSBA.L) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) experienced technical issues in the wake of outage-related disruptions across several Google cloud services. Lloyds told MT Newswires it expects all of its services to be "back to normal soon" after the root issues have been resolved. HSBC and Lloyds were down 1% and 1.26%, respectively. BHP Group (BHP.L) dropped 2.44% after posting a 19% annual decline in fiscal first-quarter copper production to 400,700 tonnes, citing planned lower ore grades, maintenance and operational disruption, including severe weather in Chile. Anglo American (AAL.L), meanwhile, gained 0.49% after reporting a year-over-year decline in its third-quarter production of copper, premium iron ore and diamonds. "We are on track to meet our 2026 guidance, supported by the planned improvement in copper ore grades in the fourth quarter," Chief Executive Officer Duncan Wanblad said.

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