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Axel Rudolph, senior technical Analyst at online trading platform IG, said:

Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) was in focus on Tuesday, after South Korea announced it was looking to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) this year for its national AI computing centre.

In a statement on Monday, South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok said: "As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems."

Nvidia (NVDA) holds around an 80% share of the global GPU market, according to Reuters.

Shares in the chipmaker were flat in pre-market trading on Tuesday, with US markets set to re-open later in the day after a closure on Monday for President's Day.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said that South Korea's announcement "should be seen as another proof point that Nvidia’s (NVDA) demand extends well beyond the giant US tech companies.

"We’ve now seen several countries express an appetite for building their own computing clusters, with the massive US Stargate project grabbing the most headlines," he said. "This is supportive to the Nvidia investment case and presents a relatively new and scalable demand avenue for its market leading chips."

Vicky McKeever writes:

British telecoms company BT (BT-A.L) slumped to the bottom of the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Tuesday, with shares down as much as 6% in morning trading.

Shares were down after it emerged that US investment bank Morgan Stanley had cut its stake in the business.

This comes just a few weeks after BT (BT-A.L) issued a third quarter trading update, in which it posted a 3% dip in adjusted revenue to £5.2bn ($6.55bn). Reported profit before tax rose just 1% to £427m in the third quarter.

However, BT reconfirmed its financial outlook for the 2025 fiscal year and its mid-term guidance. BT said it was aiming for a cash flow inflection of around £2bn in 2027 and around £3bn by the end of the decade.

Mako has incurred a £1,662,700 fine from the FCA for failing to ensure it had effective systems and controls to guard against financial crime, the regulator said today. It also failed to adequately apply the policies and procedures it did have in place.

This eighth enforcement case brought by the FCA concludes its investigations into cum-ex trading. Working closely with EU and global law enforcement agencies, the FCA has imposed fines of more than £30m in relation to this trading.

The release said:

Pedro Goncalves writes:

The British pound held firm around $1.26 on Tuesday, hovering around its highest level in two months, as traders digested a mixed labour market report.

UK wages surged at their fastest pace in eight months, intensifying pressure on Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey to tackle inflation. According to the Office for National Statistics, pay excluding bonuses rose by 5.9% for the three-month period ending in December, up from the 5.6% in the September-to-November period.

This uptick in wage growth raises concerns that higher pay could fuel inflation expectations, pushing the Bank of England to maintain interest rates at 4.5%.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.4%, defying expectations of a rise to 4.5%. Investors were worried about the employment data as business owners had been disappointed with chancellor Rachel Reeves’s announcement of a raise in employers’ contributions to national insurance. In the autumn budget, Reeves increased employers' social security contributions by 1.2% to 15%, which will come into effect from April.

Meanwhile, sterling was higher against the euro (GBPEUR=X) on Tuesday morning, at €1.20.

"Pay growth went up, but not quite as much as we were expecting," he says.

"We spent a lot of time on the pay issue in the monetary policy report." Expects pay growth to normalise over time.

On rate cuts: "We've used the words gradual and careful. We're not providing a steer" on policy. "We take it meeting by meeting."

"Things have changed rapidly in the last five or so years, and the pace of change isn't slowing down," says Bailey.

"The scale of action taking and position taking and leverage in bond markets has changed significantly."

Bruegel director Jeromin Zettelmeyer says "you could not have chosen a worse period to be director"... "are we through a market cycle?"

"We're in a period of heightened uncertainty," says Bailey. "The process of disinflation has actually gone faster than we thought it would."

"It was that that allowed us to decide to do a third cut in rates."

Bailey continues: "This has been the first big test, and I think it's come through that test well. It's reinforced why we have these frameworks and why we must be absolutely committed to them."

Here's Trump's latest view on that:

US stocks are higher in premarket trade following the Presidents Day break. Today, US and Russian diplomats begin talks on the future of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. President Trump also gave fresh details of how he intends to think about trade and tariffs in a post on X last night.

Adam Deasy, economist at PwC said:

UK pay growth rose once again in the final quarter of last year, adding to concerns about persistent inflationary pressures.

UK average weekly earnings climbed by 5.9% in the three months to December on an annual basis, up from 5.6% in the previous three months, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Wage growth continued to outstrip inflation, which unexpectedly fell in December but was still above target at 2.5%.

Meanwhile, annual average earnings – adjusted for inflation – were up 2.5% from the previous year, marking the fastest growth since the summer of 2021.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

Shares were mixed across Asia on Tuesday, as the Bank of Australia cut rates for the first time in four years.

The Hang Seng (^HSI) gained 1.4% in the session in Hong Kong as tech stocks surged on optimism about AI disruptor DeepSeek's position in helping its tech stocks grow.

Shipbuilding and manufacturing stocks led Japan's Nikkei (^N225) 0.3% higher, meanwhile.

Hello from London. Lucy Harley-McKeown here, ready to bring you the latest markets news of the day.

This morning we've already had the UK jobs report (more on that to come). Later we'll be covering Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speaking in Brussels.

In terms of company results, in Asia:

• Baidu (9888.HK)

In the UK:

• Antofagasta (ANTO.L)

• Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG.L)

US markets are also open again following the Presidents Day break.

Let's get to it.