British Shares Dwindle on Higher Unemployment Rate, Suspended US Tech Deal

11:54 AM EST, 12/16/2025 (MT Newswires) -- London's FTSE 100 closed 0.68% lower on Tuesday as labor market data pointed to rising unemployment and cooling wage growth, while the US pressed pause on a major technology deal. The UK's unemployment rate came in at 5.1% in the three months to October, as expected, up from 5% in the prior three-month period, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Meanwhile, average weekly pay, including bonuses, rose 4.7% year over year in the quarter to October, slower than the revised 4.9% jump in the prior three-month period but faster than the consensus estimate of a 4.4% increase. Investors also reacted to a report from London's Financial Times about the US administration's suspension of the Tech Prosperity Deal with the UK amid a push for concessions in areas of trade outside the tech partnership. Signed in September, the technology agreement aimed to boost ties in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and civil nuclear energy. In other news, Britain's private sector output accelerated in December, supported by an increase in new order intakes and an improvement in demand in the services sector, according to flash data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The flash UK PMI Composite Output Index hit a two-month high of 52.1 in December, compared with 51.2 in the previous month and the consensus of 51.6. "December's flash PMI surveys brought welcome news on faster economic growth at the end of the year, with businesses buoyed in part by the post-Budget lifting of uncertainty," said S&P Global Market Intelligence Chief Business Economist Chris Williamson. "The PMI is consistent with [gross domestic product] growth accelerating to 0.2% in December, albeit with a more modest 0.1% gain signalled for the fourth quarter as a whole." On the corporate front, Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.L) was down 1.44% as it proposed to initiate an interim share repurchase program worth up to 200 million pounds sterling to reduce its share capital