Tuesday 27 October 2026
Written automatically each morning by Claude from 10 news feeds, and published without editing.
Budget day is tomorrow, and the details are already leaking out. Chancellor John Healey will cut tariffs on some staple goods as part of a cost of living package meant to give households “breathing space”. He will also scrap the carer’s allowance cliff-edge, replacing it with a digital taper so carers who go over the weekly earnings limit stop facing penalties of thousands of pounds.
The backdrop is not helping him. Shop price inflation hit 2.1% in the year to October, up from 1.4% in September, according to the British Retail Consortium. Retailers had been holding prices down with heavy discounting, and that cushion now looks to be wearing thin. The tariff cuts may be aimed squarely at this.
The big market story overnight was Brazil. Lula’s win over Flávio Bolsonaro sent the real down by the most since 1999, and São Paulo stocks fell sharply. The worry is fiscal: investors doubt how he will manage the economy, and the Economist argues the pressure is now on him to avoid a slump. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party has accepted defeat, but Trump has called the result “rigged”, citing the extension of voting hours. Expect that to keep the political risk premium elevated for a while.
In tech, Microsoft is reportedly offering to buy out around a quarter of its workforce. Employees in the US, Canada, India and the UK may receive offers today. Separately, the Economist’s read of Anthropic’s IPO prospectus is that it contains warnings of challenges ahead, and that investors should not expect supersized profits any time soon.
In Israel, polls have opened in the first election since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks. Most polling shows Netanyahu’s coalition losing its majority, with Gadi Eisenkot the leading opposition contender. Meanwhile, officials from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have agreed to continue talks on regional peace and security, even as Saudi forces keep shooting down Houthi missiles.
The event to watch is Healey’s Budget tomorrow, Wednesday 28 October.
Sources
- Israel election live: polls open in most consequential vote in country’s history — Guardian
- Lula faces a fiscal reckoning after Brazil’s market rout — FT
- Iran, Saudi, Turkiye and Pakistan agree to more talks amid Houthi attacks — Al Jazeera
- Chancellor to cut tariffs on some staple goods to offer cost of living help — BBC News
- Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party accepts defeat in Brazil as Trump calls result ‘rigged’ — FT
- Healey warned ‘the dam is breaking’ on shop price inflation — City AM
- Microsoft offers to buy out a quarter of its workforce — Ars Technica
- Carers allowed to earn over the weekly limit without losing out as ‘cliff-edge’ abolished in the budget — Guardian
- Don’t expect supersize profits from Anthropic any time soon — The Economist
- Brazil’s currency plunges most since 1999 after Lula’s election victory — FT
- Markets are dismayed by Lula’s surprise win—and for good reason — The Economist
Guardian, FT, Al Jazeera, BBC News, City AM, Ars Technica, The Economist — 2026-10-27