The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) and European markets ticked higher at the opening bell, even as president Donald Trump rolled out fresh threats on trade, promising what he called "secondary tariffs" on countries that buy oil from Venezuela.

Purchasing oil and gas from Venezuela could mean the imposition of a 25% levy on trade with the US, the president said in a post on Truth Social, which was followed by an executive order.

The consequences of the order could be wide-ranging. Spain, India and the US trade oil with Venezuela, while some of its stock is sold on the black market, according to a Bloomberg report.

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) rose 0.4% after the opening bell. The top gainers were housebuilding stocks after a pledge by the UK Treasury to invest £2bn in social and affordable housing in places like Manchester and Liverpool. Persimmon (PSN.L) was the top FTSE gainer after the opening, up 2%, while Barratt Redrow (BTRW.L) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) added 1.7% and 1.6% respectively. The DAX (^GDAXI) in Germany gained 0.1% and the CAC 40 (^FCHI) in Paris was 0.5% higher. The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) rose 0.4%.

FTSE Index - Delayed Quote•USD

(^FTSE)

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8,667.23

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+(0.34%)

As of 8:23:40 AM GMT. Market Open.  ^FTSE^GDAXI ^FCHI

Advanced ChartLIVE4 updates

29 mins ago

Lucy Harley-McKeown

Kingfisher pops at the open following results

The B&Q owner's stock headed around 1.2% higher as markets opened in London following a solid quarterly report.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: 34 mins ago

Lucy Harley-McKeown

Here's that US stock future chart

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As of 4:28:39 AM EDT. Market Open.  ES=FYM=F NQ=F

Advanced Chart 34 mins ago

Lucy Harley-McKeown

US stock futures slip

Our US team writes:

US stock futures wavered Monday night after a solid day in the green for the major gauges, bolstered by optimism that President Trump would temper his plans for reciprocal tariffs.

Futures attached to the benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F), the Nasdaq Composite (NQ=F), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) all slipped about 0.1%.

Stocks soared on Monday, with all three major averages gaining over 1%. Market optimism has followed signals that the Trump administration may scale back the upcoming tariffs set for April 2. On Monday, the president said he “may give a lot of countries breaks." At the same time, though, he said tariffs on pharmaceutical and autos sectors are still due for the "near future."

On Monday, tech stocks drove an AI-led rally, as Nvidia (NVDA), Meta (META), and Jack Ma's Ant Group begin to rebuild positive sentiment in the rocky sector. 37 mins ago

Lucy Harley-McKeown

Good morning!

Hello from London. Lucy Harley-McKeown here, poised to bring you the business and markets news of the day.

Today a clutch of companies are reporting, including:

B&Q owner Kingfisher (KGF.L) — full-year Housebuilder Bellway (BWY.L) — full-year Tonic-maker Fevertree (FEVR.L) — full-year Memestock Gamestop (GME) — quarterly

New Japanese inflation data also came out today.

The Ifo German economic survey is due at 10.30am CET.

Let's get to it.

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