Monday 1 December 2025
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: OPEC+ keeps oil output unchanged
Business and markets: Swine fever hits Spain – EU’s biggest pork exporter
Foreign Affairs: Thousands protest in Philippines against corruption
Security and intelligence: Ukraine and US meet before Moscow talks
Domestic politics: UK Chancellor denies lying over public finances
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 9,720.51 (up 0.27%)
S&P 500 = 6,849.09 (up 0.54%)
Nasdaq = 23,365.69 (up 0.65%)
CAC40 = 8,122.71 (up 0.29%)
£1 = $1.32 / €1.14
Lab / Con / Reform = 21 / 17 / 31 per cent (Opinium, 26-28 Nov)
The Mighty Detail
Economics: OPEC+ said yesterday that it would leave oil output unchanged in Q1 2026. OPEC+ produces half the world’s oil. The price of Brent crude stood at $63 per barrel on Friday. This is down by around 15 per cent this year.
Business and markets: There has been an outbreak of suspected African swine fever among a dozen or so wild boar in Catalonia, Spain. The UK and other countries are temporarily banning pork imports from Catalonia.
Spain is the EU’s biggest producer and exporter of pork.
Its pork exports are worth €8.8 billion a year and a third of all export certificates have now been blocked.
Foreign Affairs: Thousands of people demonstrated in the Philippines yesterday against a large corruption scandal involving flood defence contracts. The country is prone to storms and the scandal involving lawmakers is destabilising the country. President Marcos said that $206 million of corrupt assets had already been frozen.
Security and intelligence: Ukrainian and American negotiators met in Florida on Sunday to further refine a proposed peace plan in the war with Russia. US negotiators, including envoy Steve Witkoff, are expected to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian negotiators this week.
Separately, and in an unusual move, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to skip a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. No reason has been given and there are only two NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting a year.
Domestic politics: The UK Chancellor said yesterday that she did not lie about a “black hole” in the public finances in speeches ahead of the Budget. It comes after the independent Office for Budget Responsibility said that it gave Rachel Reeves forecasts before those speeches which stated that she effectively had a £4.2 billion surplus. Reeves is saying she needed more.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
President Macron hosts President Zelensky in Paris
Sir Keir Starmer expected to give speech on the economy (daytime)
Sir Keir Starmer expected to give foreign policy speech at Lady Mayor’s Banquet, City of London (evening)
Education Questions in the UK Parliament
Continuation of Budget debate in UK Parliament
UK and US manufacturing PMI data – both set to stay at around 52
Lookahead to tomorrow
Foreign Office Questions in UK Parliament
Final Budget debate in UK Parliament
Bank of England publishes financial stability report
IOPC report on Hillsborough
Eurozone CPI inflation data (November) – expected to stay at 2.1%
Company results from: CrowdStrike
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Rain across the UK. High of 13C and low of 8C in London.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“Don't overlook those lovely intangibles. You'll discover they're the only things that are worthwhile.” – from the film Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Mighty takeaway: If your beliefs, stories and traditions are meaningful to you, that’s all that matters. Enjoy the things in life that matter to you. Don’t be swayed by what you think you should do/think/be.
That’s it for this morning. Thank you for reading and we hope you have an excellent start to the week.
Bye!
The Mighty Memo team
*To read the Mighty Memo manifesto and learn about why we do this visit: https://www.mightymemo.co.uk/why*