Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses have given the King’s Speech a decidedly lukewarm reception, with industry leaders accusing ministers of squandering a “critical opportunity” to ease the mounting cost pressures threatening to choke off growth across the economy.

While the legislative programme offered some genuine wins, most notably a long-awaited crackdown on late payments and a meaningful overhaul of City regulation, there was a conspicuous silence on the three issues that dominate the in-tray of every SME owner in the country: business rates, soaring energy bills and the rising cost of employing staff.

Coming as the deepening conflict in the Middle East drives up energy and shipping costs, the omissions felt particularly raw to firms already navigating what the CBI’s chief executive, Rain Newton-Smith, described as “strong global headwinds”.

A missed moment on rates and energy

Shevaun Haviland, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, did not mince her words. “With the Middle East conflict ratcheting up cost pressures, this was a critical opportunity to deliver meaningful change and give companies the certainty they urgently need,” she said. “Businesses will be disappointed to see no clear progress on reforming business rates, which remain a major cost burden for firms across the UK.”

Haviland was equally pointed on what she called the speech’s failure to grapple with supply-chain resilience, urging ministers to accelerate work on infrastructure, planning reform and the chronic backlog of grid connections that has become a binding constraint on industrial investment. Businesses, she said, wanted “a relentless focus on reducing costs, boosting investment and improving competitiveness”.

Newton-Smith struck a similar note. Firms, she argued, “want to go for growth, but they need strong leadership from government to reform an unfair business rates system, lower business energy bills and find appropriate landing zones on the Employment Rights Act”.

The British Retail Consortium went further, warning that ministers risked allowing an “inflationary storm” to take hold. Helen Dickinson, its chief executive, said: “Government cannot raise living standards without reducing the costs of doing business. Every moment of indecision will deepen the damage done to the British economy and extend the pain felt by households everywhere.”

Late payments: a long-overdue win for SMEs

For all the grumbling, one measure was greeted with something close to euphoria in the SME community. The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill will impose maximum payment terms of 60 days, mandate interest on overdue invoices and arm the Small Business Commissioner with powers to investigate serial offenders and issue fines.

The economic case is stark. Late payments drain an estimated £11 billion from the UK economy every year and, according to government figures, contribute to the closure of 38 businesses every day.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, called the bill “an historic moment for small firms”, adding: “Late payment destroys thousands of viable small firms a year. For too long, large businesses have used small suppliers as a free overdraft.”

Emma Jones, the Small Business Commissioner, described the package as “excellent news for UK businesses”. Steve Thomas, insolvency partner at Excello Law, said the measures could finally arrest the “domino effect” of large companies pushing smaller suppliers towards insolvency, though he argued the 60-day deadline should ultimately be tightened to 28.

The City cheers a regulatory reset

In the Square Mile, the mood was markedly brighter. The Enhancing Financial Services Bill promises a significant pruning of the post-crisis regulatory thicket, including an overhaul of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the absorption of the Payment Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority, and a streamlining of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.

Miles Celic, chief executive of TheCityUK, said the package “signals a clear commitment to strengthening the UK’s position as a leading international financial centre”. Hannah Gurga, director-general of the Association of British Insurers, hailed it as “a significant step towards strengthening the UK’s competitiveness and long-term economic stability”.

Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, struck a note of cautious optimism. “Delivery will be key,” he said. “We must now maintain momentum and ensure reforms translate into tangible improvements in how regulation operates in practice.”

The accompanying Competition Reform Bill, which aims to speed up merger investigations and bake a growth duty into regulators’ decision-making, was similarly well received. Michael Moore, chief executive of UK Private Capital, said quicker, more focused investigations would provide “increased clarity” for private capital firms weighing UK investments.

Hospitality braced for a holiday tax

If the City had cause to smile, the hospitality sector did not. Proposals for local tourist levies have alarmed an industry already grappling with the highest employment and energy costs in its recent history.

Allen Simpson, chief executive of UK Hospitality, was blunt: a holiday tax, he said, would be “wildly unpopular, as well as economically destructive. A holiday tax will increase the cost of a staycation for Brits, it will hit lower income families hardest, it will lose the Treasury money and it will cost 33,000 jobs.”

Matthew Price, chief executive of Awaze, the holiday rentals group behind cottages.com and Hoseasons, warned that any levy on overnight stays “risks placing further pressure on consumers with already tight budgets, and by extension the communities and businesses that rely on holidaymakers for their living”. If a levy is unavoidable, he urged, it must be applied through “a standardised national framework that minimises the impact on guests, owners and the wider visitor economy in Britain”.

Steel, Europe and a leasehold flashpoint

Elsewhere, the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill gives ministers the powers to take British Steel into full public ownership, subject to a public interest test. The CBI cautiously described nationalisation as “an expensive option of last resort”, while conceding that preserving sovereign steelmaking capability mattered for economic security.

The European Partnership Bill, which would fast-track future UK-EU agreements, was warmly welcomed by exporters and retailers. The BRC called it a “golden opportunity” to cut red tape for food businesses, manufacturers and suppliers trading across the Channel, though it pressed for clear guidance on the sanitary and phytosanitary arrangements that will follow.

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, which will ban leasehold for new flats in England and Wales and cap ground rents at £250 a year, drew predictable battle lines. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, said the legislation “marks the beginning of the end for the leasehold system that has tainted the dream of home ownership for so many”. The Residential Freehold Association countered that the proposals were “a wholly unjustified interference with existing property rights” that risked damaging investor confidence in the housing market.

Regulatory sandboxes for the innovators

Finally, the Regulating for Growth Bill empowers regulators to establish “sandbox” schemes allowing firms to trial emerging technologies — from defence innovations to AI-controlled ships — under lighter-touch oversight. It was warmly received by investors, with Moore suggesting the powers would help founders and backers “grow, innovate and support jobs” in sectors often dependent on private capital.

 The verdict

Across 37 bills, the King’s Speech offered something for almost every business constituency, and, in the eyes of many SMEs, not nearly enough. The late payments crackdown will rightly be celebrated as a structural reform a generation overdue. The City has its long-promised regulatory reset. Exporters have a route to a closer European relationship.

But for the corner-shop retailer staring at a quadrupled rates bill, the manufacturer absorbing yet another energy price spike, or the publican counting the cost of the Employment Rights Act, the speech will feel like a missed opportunity. The political theatre may have moved on; the economic anxiety on Britain’s high streets has not.

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India’s equity markets may be navigating geopolitical uncertainty and commodity price pressures, but strong earnings momentum and a structural manufacturing opportunity are keeping market optimism intact, according to Mukul Kochhar from Investec Capital Services. In a conversation with ET Now, Kochhar laid out why he believes the market recovery is backed by fundamentals rather than sentiment alone.

He pointed out that fourth-quarter earnings have been far stronger than expected, with profit growth for the BSE 500 universe running above 20% so far. According to him, if current quarterly earnings are annualised, they are already in line with analyst projections for FY27 earnings, suggesting that corporate profitability may have bottomed out.

“So, Q4 earnings have been really solid. So, just to give you an idea, it is so far quarter to date companies reported, pat growth is north of 20%. This is BSE 500, as a pack companies reported quarter to date,” Kochhar said.

He added that historically, annualising fourth-quarter earnings in a growing economy like India often results in further upside to earnings estimates over the following year.

While investors remain worried about near-term pressure from rising commodity prices in Q1 and Q2, Kochhar believes companies possess enough pricing power to pass on higher costs. He expects earnings estimates for FY27 to either remain stable or move higher once the temporary impact fades.

This optimism around earnings, he said, explains why markets have recovered despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Midcaps have bounced back sharply and benchmark indices have regained momentum, supported by confidence in corporate growth.
Kochhar, however, cautioned that a prolonged geopolitical crisis leading to a major spike in crude oil prices could still pose risks.“Of course, if this war prolongs beyond July, August and we start getting shortage of crude and the crude price blows up beyond 150 and things start shutting down, that is a tail event that is not getting priced in by the markets today,” he said.

Manufacturing Exports Emerging As The Big Theme
Beyond short-term volatility, Kochhar believes India’s most important investment theme for the next five years will be manufacturing exports.

He argued that India’s trade agreements are dramatically changing the country’s export competitiveness. According to him, India previously had export access arrangements covering only about 20% of the global economy, but that number has now risen sharply with agreements involving Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and ongoing understandings with the United States.

“Actually, more importantly, the theme of the next five years from India is going to be manufacturing exports,” Kochhar said.

He noted that Indian manufacturers historically struggled because of unfavourable trade tariffs compared with global competitors. With new trade frameworks narrowing that gap, sectors such as electronics, auto components and even defence manufacturing are beginning to benefit.

Kochhar said conversations with companies indicate growing confidence around export demand, especially in electronics manufacturing, where firms are preparing for stronger overseas opportunities amid expectations of new government incentives.

He also highlighted that India remains significantly underrepresented in global manufacturing exports. While India accounts for roughly 3.5% of global GDP, its share in manufacturing exports stands at only 1.9%, leaving considerable room for expansion.

“So, we are practically half of what our proportionate market share in manufacturing exports as it should be,” he said.

According to Kochhar, improving logistics, lower electricity costs, GST reforms and lower effective tax rates have strengthened India’s manufacturing competitiveness over the last decade. He expects export growth in several manufacturing categories to expand at 15-20% in dollar terms because of the relatively low base.

That growth potential, he argued, also justifies premium valuations for select manufacturing companies.

“So, if we are getting some manufacturing companies for 30 multiple on FY27 and which we are getting today, I am a happy buyer,” he said.

AI Disruption Could Reshape Indian IT
Kochhar also addressed concerns around artificial intelligence and its impact on India’s IT sector, especially after repeated selloffs in IT stocks whenever global AI companies announce new products or features.

He believes part of the correction in Indian IT came because valuations had become unsustainably high relative to expected growth rates.

According to Kochhar, India already commands about 4.5% of the global services exports market, making it difficult for large IT companies to sustain very high growth rates. He estimates large Indian IT firms may only grow at around 3-4%, while smaller, niche-focused companies could grow faster.

“For a 3-4% growth company, paying 18-19 multiples which we were paying on forward basis like six months ago was untenable,” he said.

Still, he does not see AI permanently damaging India’s IT services opportunity. Kochhar argued that global companies have consistently increased IT spending over the last two decades because technology investments are viewed as productivity and revenue-generating tools.

“This year the best thing to do is AI. So, most of your budget will go towards AI this year,” he said.

He expects the next wave of opportunities to emerge in application-layer AI services, where Indian firms could remain highly competitive. While foundational AI models may dominate headlines, Kochhar believes companies that build practical AI applications and client solutions will create significant value.

“There may be a year or two disruption where these things get reconfigured, but I do not expect India’s services pie to get impacted especially in IT services if we look at the medium term,” he said.

When asked whether it is time to buy IT stocks, Kochhar said he remains selective. He prefers companies working directly on AI-driven services and solutions, particularly smaller and more agile firms capable of adapting quickly to technological change.

“But yes, the real excitement will be in some of these new companies that come up which are really-really nimble and are using the latest tool to solve problems for clients,” he said.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms has suffered a significant legal setback in Europe after the bloc’s highest court ruled that national regulators have the power to enforce compensation arrangements between online platforms and news publishers for the use of their journalism.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, sitting in Luxembourg, found in favour of Italy’s communications regulator, AGCOM, which Meta had accused of overstepping its remit by setting the price the social media group must pay for displaying snippets of press articles on Facebook and Instagram. The judgment is likely to embolden newspaper groups across the continent, including in the UK, that have long argued they are negotiating from a position of structural weakness against a handful of dominant American technology platforms.

“The court finds that a right to fair compensation for publishers is consistent with EU law, provided that that remuneration constitutes consideration for authorising their publications to be used online,” the judges said in their ruling.

Meta had argued that the Italian measures were incompatible with the rights publishers already enjoy under European copyright law, and that allowing national regulators to dictate commercial terms amounted to regulatory overreach. The company, which owns WhatsApp alongside its flagship social platforms, said it would study the judgment in full and “engage constructively as the matter returns to the Italian courts”.

For Britain’s beleaguered publishing sector, where regional titles in particular have been hollowed out over the past decade as advertising revenue migrated to Silicon Valley, the ruling will be watched closely. Although the UK is no longer bound by Court of Justice decisions following Brexit, Westminster has been drafting its own framework for compelling platforms to strike commercial deals with news publishers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The European judgment provides political cover for ministers minded to take a firmer line.

The European Publishers Council was quick to claim victory. Angela Mills Wade, its executive director, said the ruling acknowledged “the economic reality that publishers cannot negotiate on equal terms with dominant online platforms without transparency, access to relevant data, and safeguards against coercive behaviour”.

“This crucial decision comes at a time when AI-driven and platform-mediated uses of journalistic content are rapidly expanding,” she added. “This important ruling will pave the way for fairer negotiations with gatekeepers which have been abusing their dominance by refusing to negotiate in good faith. Quality journalism depends on the ability of publishers to recoup the investments required to produce trusted news and information.”

The decision lands at a fraught moment for relations between the technology industry and the creative economy. Earlier this month, five of the world’s largest publishing houses, including Elsevier, Hachette and Macmillan, filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta in a New York federal court, alleging that the Silicon Valley group pirated millions of books and academic articles to train Llama, its large language model. Works cited in the complaint include N. K. Jemisin’s award-winning novel The Fifth Season and Peter Brown’s bestselling children’s book The Wild Robot.

Meta has vowed to fight the case “aggressively”, but the action is symptomatic of a broader reckoning. Anthropic, the AI start-up backed by Amazon and Google, last year became the first major artificial intelligence company to settle such a claim, agreeing to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve litigation that the company’s lawyers feared could have run into many billions more had it gone to trial.

For owner-managed publishers, freelance journalists and the broader content economy, the direction of travel is becoming clearer. After two decades in which platforms harvested editorial output largely on their own terms, the legal pendulum is swinging, slowly, but unmistakably, back towards those who produce the work in the first place. Whether the compensation flowing from rulings such as this one will be enough to sustain quality journalism is a separate, and arguably more difficult, question.

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Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AmpliTech Group’s Quarterly Investor Update Call, where the company will discuss its first quarter 2026 financial results. Present in this call, we have the executive team of AmpliTech Group, Fawad Maqbool, CEO, CTO and Board Chair; Jorge Flores, COO; Louisa Sanfratello, CFO. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to AmpliTech’s COO, Jorge Flores.

Jorge Flores
Chief Operating Officer

Thank you, Drew, and thank you for joining today’s call to review AmpliTech’s first quarter 2026 financial results, review of our company’s outlook and to answer investor questions. Following the initial management comments, we will open the call to these questions.

An archived replay of today’s call will be posted to the Investor Relations section of AmpliTech’s corporate website. This call is taking place on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. Remarks that follow and answers to questions may include statements that the company believes to be forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally include words such as anticipate, believe, expect or words of similar importance. Likewise, statements that describe future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking.

These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks that could cause actual results to be materially different than expected. Such risks include, among others, matters that the company has described in its press releases and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except

Publix has quietly made changes to a policy that allowed customers to openly carry guns inside its Florida grocery stores.

The Florida-based chain, which operates more than 1,400 locations across the Southeast, now says on its website it “kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores.”

The change comes months after Publix said it would permit open carry in its hundreds of locations across the Sunshine State after a state appeals court ruling that struck down the state’s ban as unconstitutional.

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“As of Sept. 25, 2025, Florida law allows the open carry of firearms,” a spokesperson for Publix previously told FOX Business, adding the company “follows all federal, state and local laws.”

At the time, Publix was one of only a few grocery chains willing to allow customers to openly carry guns.

Other major retailers — including Walmart, Target, Costco, Winn-Dixie and Sam’s Club — had already asked customers not to bring guns into their stores, according to WESH 2.

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Private businesses, including grocery stores, remain entitled to bar weapons. 

Additionally, certain locations such as courthouses, schools and government facilities are classified as prohibited places for carrying open or concealed guns.

“Any person carrying a firearm who violates the private property owner’s warning to depart will be committing armed trespass, a third-degree felony,” a guidance memorandum from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to Florida law enforcement agencies and prosecuting authorities said. 

FLORIDA GROCERY STORE CHAIN ALLOWS OPEN CARRY IN STORES

Signs reflecting Publix’s updated stance have also begun appearing at some store locations, according to the Miami Herald.

No major incidents were reported while the policy allowing open carry was in place. However, the shift follows a recent accidental gun discharge at a Miramar store, which prompted a police response and safety sweep, the Miami Herald reported.

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FOX Business reached out to Publix for comment.

FOX Business’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is among the group of American business leaders who have traveled to China with President Donald Trump and is pursuing what could be a sizable deal for the plane-maker.

Ortberg said on a call with analysts last month the visit represents “a meaningful opportunity for us,” though he cautioned that he thinks a deal is “100% dependent on the U.S.-China negotiations and relations.”

“I’m not going to give you the number of airplanes, but it’s a big number,” Ortberg told analysts of the potential order Boeing may land.

He said he is “highly confident” that if Trump reaches an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the deal will “include some aircraft orders.”

BOEING SECURES $8.6B CONTRACT TO BUILD FIGHTER JETS FOR ISRAEL’S AIR FORCE

“President Trump has been very focused on supporting us in international campaigns, and he’s been very successful in doing that,” Ortberg added.

Bloomberg reported that China is considering a deal for about 500 of Boeing’s 737 Max jetliners, which would help Chinese airlines in need of new aircraft, according to people familiar with the matter.

The outlet also reported that Boeing and China are in discussions about selling around 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X wide-body jetliners, though the deal isn’t expected to be a focal point in this week’s summit and would likely move forward at a later date, with the 737 Max deal the immediate focus.

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Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BA	THE BOEING CO.	240.60	+3.73	+1.57%

Orders of jetliners from Boeing are expected to be a key portion of a broader agreement between the U.S. and China if Trump and Xi reach an agreement, along with other farm goods and other items.

Energy purchases may also be on the table because China wants the U.S. to allow tech companies to sell Chinese firms advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips as the world’s two largest economies race to advance AI capabilities.

Other corporate leaders traveling to China with the U.S. delegation include Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Cargill CEO Brian Sikes and several other leaders of prominent U.S. companies.

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“Besides Boeing and Cargill being linked to purchase agreements, the others are mainly there to deliver demands on critical input supply,” said Reva Goujon, a geopolitical strategist at Rhodium Group.

“This could help the U.S. administration’s messaging that to even be able to discuss a board of investment, China needs to be a reliable investment partner and not weaponize supply,” Goujon added.

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Reuters contributed to this report.