A basic monthly subscription to the gaming service will rise by £1, $1 (75p), and €1 (87p) to £7.99, $10.99, and €9.99 respectively. Meanwhile, a basic three-month subscription will go up by £3, $3, and €3 to £21.99, $27.99, and €27.99 respectively.

The uncertainty over when the Middle East war may end has weighed on sentiment, fanned inflation fears and triggered a global bond selloff, with the yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury bond hitting its highest level since 2007. [US/]

President Donald Trump said the ‌United States may ⁠need to ⁠strike Iran again but suggested Iran wants a deal to end the war that has roiled markets and sent energy prices soaring.

The euro last bought $1.1608, having touched its lowest level since April 8 in the previous session. The British pound was at $1.3398, not far from a six-week low it touched earlier this week.

The Australian dollar, often seen as a barometer for risk sentiment, was 0.14% lower at $0.7097, while the New Zealand dollar fell 0.24% at $0.5822.

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Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was steady at 99.306. The index is up more than 1% in May due to ⁠safe-haven demand ‌and markets pricing in chances of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by the end of the year.
Traders are now pricing in an over 50% chance of a hike in December, CME FedWatch ⁠showed, in a sharp reversal from two rate cuts expected before the war. Investor focus will be on the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting due later in the day. Carol Kong, currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, expects the minutes to be hawkish, pushing the dollar up further, noting that more Fed policymakers have warned about high U.S. inflation since the last Fed meeting in April.

“We continue to expect the FOMC to start a tightening cycle in December,” Kong said.

The fragile ceasefire agreed in April has mostly held, although markets remain worried as the Strait of Hormuz – a key route for global ‌supplies of oil and other commodities – is still effectively closed.

Brent crude futures were at $110.8 per barrel in early trading, well above the levels before the war started at the end of February.

The dollar’s rise has pushed the yen back near ⁠the 160-per-dollar level that led to Japanese officials last month launching their first currency market intervention in nearly two years.

Tokyo had stepped in to stem the yen’s slide in several bouts of intervention at the end of April and early May, sources told Reuters, but the yen’s strength did not last long. It was last at 159.03 per U.S. dollar, its weakest level since April 30.

“Near term, excessive volatility is key while 160/161 remains the line to watch,” said Christopher Wong, currency strategist at OCBC.

“Intervention risk should make markets more cautious about chasing dollar/yen higher, but unless U.S. Treasury yields and the broad USD soften, official action may only temporarily slow the move rather than reverse it,” he said.

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Shares were lower in Australia, Japan and South Korea. That set the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index up for a fourth consecutive day of decline as rising bond yields around the world put a question mark on valuations. Equity-index futures for US stocks edged lower in early Asian trade.

With oil holding above $100 and little sign of an easing in the Iran conflict, yields on 30-year Treasuries on Tuesday hit levels last seen in 2007 on concern elevated energy costs may push the Federal Reserve toward a hike rather than a cut. Treasuries were steady in early Wednesday trading.

A gauge of the dollar closed at its highest in six weeks. Gold, a non yielding asset, held its losses from the prior session, trading under $4,500 an ounce. Chip shares erased earlier losses in the US session, leaving the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, or SOX, little changed.

Global stocks have retreated for three straight days after investors spent weeks brushing aside concerns over the war in the Middle East on optimism that artificial intelligence spending would continue to fuel corporate earnings growth. Attention is now turning to Nvidia Corp.’s earnings on Wednesday, with investors increasingly questioning whether the AI-driven rally has run too far, too fast.

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“The issue of rising bond yields is still something which could create problems for today’s expensive stock market,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.
The S&P 500 fell 0.7% and the Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 0.6% as rising yields, hot US inflation numbers and elevated oil prices curb investors’ appetite. Treasury yields continued their ascent Tuesday, with the 30-year benchmark approaching 5.20% and the 10-year rising past 4.65%. Bond markets across Europe and Japan also fell Tuesday.

Yields on government bonds have surged globally in recent weeks as a jump in energy prices caused by the Iran war adds to inflation fears, pushing traders to bet the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates as soon as this year. Mounting deficits are also prompting investors to demand greater compensation to own longer-maturity debt.

Three of Britain’s best-known high-street names have been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the watchdog found their Black Friday promotions overstated the true value of the discounts on offer, in a ruling that will sharpen the focus on pricing claims across the retail sector this Christmas.

The regulator concluded that John Lewis, Boots and Debenhams each breached the advertising code by presenting reference prices that could not be substantiated as genuine established selling prices, the long-standing benchmark by which savings claims are judged.

In John Lewis’s case, two laptop promotions came under scrutiny. A MacBook Air advertised with a £150 saving against an earlier price of £849 was found not to meet the threshold, with third-party pricing data indicating the higher figure had only been in place briefly before the promotion began. A separate Asus laptop, advertised with a £450 reduction, was likewise judged not to represent a genuine saving.

The ASA also upheld complaints against Debenhams over banners offering discounts of “up to 44%”, and against Boots over a fragrance promotion marked down from £80 to £60, ruling that there was insufficient evidence in either case that the higher prices reflected the goods’ usual selling prices.

The interventions form part of the ASA’s expanding programme of AI-assisted monitoring, which has already produced action against travel firms and the online retailer Very over similar pricing claims. The watchdog has made clear that its proactive Active Ad Monitoring system is being scaled up to identify suspect promotions at speed, particularly around high-stakes trading events such as Black Friday and the January sales.

Emily Henwood, an operations manager at the ASA, said consumers were entitled to expect that Black Friday bargains were the real thing. Retailers, she added, must remember that promotional events do not buy them an exemption from the rules and that any advertised discount must be capable of being proved.

The rulings sit within a broader pattern. Consumer research has repeatedly shown that headline Black Friday savings are not all they seem, with one widely reported study finding only one in seven so-called Black Friday bargains offered a genuine discount compared with prices charged at other points in the year. The CAP Code is unambiguous on the point: under its promotional savings claims guidance, reference prices must reflect a genuine, established usual selling price and the higher figure must have been available for a meaningfully longer period than the discounted one.

For boards, finance directors and marketing leads at SMEs that take their cue from larger retailers, the message is straightforward. The regulator is no longer reliant solely on consumer complaints to police pricing; algorithmic monitoring is doing much of the heavy lifting, and the bar of proof for “was/now” claims is being applied with increasing rigour. Recent enforcement against Nationwide over its branch closure advertising and Huel and Zoe over undisclosed commercial ties to Steven Bartlett underline that the ASA is willing to take on household names where it believes consumers have been misled.

George McLellan, a partner in the dispute resolution team at law firm Sharpe Pritchard who has defended advertisers in ASA investigations, said the latest decisions showed the regulator at its most effective. “These rulings show the ASA at its most effective: tackling straightforward cases of potentially misleading advertising that directly affect consumers,” he said. “I hope the ASA and CAP continue to prioritise this kind of core regulatory enforcement over broader attempts to influence social policy through advertising rules.”

For consumers, the practical takeaway is that scepticism remains the sharpest tool in the shopper’s arsenal. For retailers, the cost of a censure now goes well beyond a corrective ruling: reputational damage, the prospect of follow-on action from the Competition and Markets Authority under its strengthened consumer powers, and the wider chilling effect on customer trust all argue for tighter discipline around how discounts are constructed and communicated.

If Black Friday is to remain a serious commercial fixture rather than a marketing folk tale, the burden of proof, the ASA has made clear, sits squarely with the retailer.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.