The FTSE 100 index is on fire! What’s going on ?

Story by Ben McPoland

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Incredibly, the FTSE 100 just completed 11 days of positive gains. This was the blue-chip index‘s best run since 2019 !

The Footsie tanked in early April when President Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement threatened to send the global economy into a tailspin. Since then though, there have been rowbacks and pauses from the US administration. This has calmed markets, at least for now.

Specifically for the FTSE 100, it means the index has nearly clawed back all the losses following Trump’s announcement. I certainly didn’t expect 11 days of gains, proving once again how utterly unpredictable markets can be in the short term.

Damage might already be done

But we’re not out of the woods just yet. The 90-day pause on most ‘reciprocal’ tariffs ends in July. Depending on what happens then (or before), the index could pull back sharply or keep climbing to notch new record highs. It’s a bit of a coin toss.

Moreover, there will already damage done to global growth from all the uncertainty. How much damage we don’t know yet, but the 10% blanket tariff is still in place, as is the extraordinary 145% duty on goods from China.