{"id":67547,"date":"2026-02-04T02:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/europe-bulletin-uk-stocks-pull-back-gold-copper-lift-miners-france-raids-x-headquarters\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:34:58","slug":"europe-bulletin-uk-stocks-pull-back-gold-copper-lift-miners-france-raids-x-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/europe-bulletin-uk-stocks-pull-back-gold-copper-lift-miners-france-raids-x-headquarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe bulletin: UK stocks pull back, gold, copper lift miners, France raids X headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Originally posted on : Russia News, Latest Stories & Analysis | Invezz )<\/b>
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Europe\u2019s markets and politics struck a cautious tone on Tuesday as investors and policymakers grappled with rising uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The FTSE 100 slipped from record highs as heavyweight stocks fell and traders positioned ahead of a crucial Bank of England rate decision.<\/p>\n

In France, authorities escalated scrutiny of X, raiding its Paris offices in a widening cybercrime probe.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, geopolitical stakes rose sharply as NATO chief Mark Rutte warned that any Russia-Ukraine peace deal would involve \u201cdifficult choices,\u201d even as fresh attacks battered Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n

FTSE 100 pulls back from record highs<\/h2>\n


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London\u2019s FTSE 100 pulled back from a record high on Tuesday, dipping 0.4% to 10,339 points after touching 10,373 earlier.<\/p>\n

AstraZeneca shares tanked 1.5% when US regulators knocked back its easier-to-use lupus drug Saphnelo, pushing approval to H1 2026.<\/p>\n

Energy stocks like Shell and BP slid 1% each as oil prices eased amid US-Iran de-escalation hopes.<\/p>\n

Miners bucked the trend, with Endeavour Mining up 5% and Fresnillo soaring 43% on a gold price surge, its biggest since 2008, while Anglo American gained 4% on copper demand bets.\u200b<\/p>\n

Investors stayed jittery ahead of Thursday\u2019s Bank of England meeting, expected to hold rates at 3.75%.<\/p>\n

UK grocery inflation eased to 4%, the lowest since April, easing consumer pain.<\/p>\n

French officials raid X headquarters<\/h2>\n


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Paris prosecutors raided X\u2019s French headquarters on Tuesday, executing searches through their cybercrime unit backed by Europol and the French national cybercrime squad.<\/p>\n

The investigation, opened in January 2025 following complaints of algorithm manipulation and dodgy data extraction, has now expanded.<\/p>\n

New allegations center on Grok, X\u2019s AI chatbot, accused of generating Holocaust denial content and non-consensual sexual deepfakes of minors, criminal offenses in France.<\/p>\n

Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned for voluntary interviews on April 20. The prosecutor\u2019s office publicly ditched X, switching to LinkedIn and Instagram for updates.<\/p>\n

X denies everything, calling it politically motivated.<\/p>\n

\u2018Difficult choices\u2019 in play for Russia-Ukraine peace<\/h2>\n


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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv on Tuesday, stressing that any peace deal ending Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine will demand \u201cdifficult choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to parliament, he pledged Europe, America, and Canada stand ready to provide robust security guarantees, including potential troop deployments by some European allies, with Washington as backup.<\/p>\n

Rutte insisted any peace \u201cmust last,\u201d requiring strong armed forces plus ironclad security commitments.<\/p>\n

He highlighted NATO\u2019s PURL program supplying 90% of Ukraine\u2019s air-defense missiles, underscoring the alliance\u2019s military backing.<\/p>\n

The visit came hours after Russia unleashed 450+ drones and 70 missiles, hitting energy infrastructure as temperatures hit minus 20\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

Peace talks resume Wednesday-Thursday in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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(Originally posted on : Russia News, Latest Stories & Analysis | Invezz ) Europe\u2019s markets and politics struck a cautious tone on Tuesday as investors and policymakers grappled with rising uncertainty. The FTSE 100 slipped from record highs as heavyweight stocks fell and traders positioned ahead of a crucial Bank of England rate decision. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3947362395,"featured_media":67548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3947362395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}