Business 6 November 2026

61 million fans in three months pushed Live Nation past $10bn in revenue

The world's biggest concert promoter, which is selling U2's Lisbon stadium tickets, reported third-quarter revenue of $10.105bn, up 19%. Attendance grew at the same pace, and ticket sales for 2027 shows are already up by double digits.

Live Nation, the world’s biggest concert promoter and the owner of Ticketmaster, has just had its strongest quarter on record. Between July and September it sold shows to 61 million people and brought in $10.105bn, 19% more than a year earlier, according to the earnings release it filed with the US regulator on Thursday.

Operating income rose 13% to $892m. Concerts, the bulk of the business, made $8.746bn. Ticketmaster’s ticketing arm made $870m on 98 million fee-bearing tickets.

What each fan is worth

By our sums, concert revenue divided by the quarter’s audience comes to about $143 a head. That covers the ticket, and also the beer, the T-shirt and the parking the company charges for at the venues it runs. The average hides a wide range: in Lisbon, the promoter is selling U2 tickets for the Estádio da Luz at between 95 and 533 euros, before you get to the VIP packages.

Attendance grew as fast as revenue, so the jump wasn’t simply about pricier tickets. Stadiums, arenas and amphitheatres are each selling around 15% more, or better, for 2026 shows, and the company’s own venues welcomed 26 million people in the quarter. Live Nation expects that figure to pass 75 million by December.

What comes next

The company says ticket sales for 2027 concerts are already up by double digits on the same point last year, and that it will open or buy ten venues of more than 3,000 seats before the year is out. Outside the US, arenas should deliver three quarters of the audience growth at its large venues. At European arenas, what each fan spends once inside rose by double digits.

Chief executive Michael Rapino made his familiar pitch: in a world of screens and AI, being there in person is the one thing nobody can copy. For anyone buying tickets, the takeaway is less romantic. With demand growing as fast as revenue, there is no sign that prices are coming down any time soon.

By Beatriz Mota

Image: Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Business 5 November 2026

Live in the UK? Your gas standing charge is on its way out, and so are new North Sea fields

The Energy Independence Bill, introduced to Parliament on 4 November, ends licences to explore new oil and gas fields and paves the way to scrap the daily gas standing charge, which the government says will save around 60% of gas customers an average of £45 a year.

The UK government put a bill before Parliament on Wednesday that reaches into household bills and the future of North Sea oil at the same time. The Energy Independence Bill ends licences to explore new, untapped oil and gas fields and sets up the scrapping of the daily gas standing charge. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh called it a first down payment on fixing a system that leaves households exposed to price shocks thousands of miles away. If you live…

Business 4 November 2026

One missing engine chip could idle Fiat Pandina and 500 production until December

Stellantis says a shortage of an engine-control-unit component from a single supplier is causing 'significant' disruption in Italy. Pomigliano (Pandina) and Mirafiori (500) may halt in November and December, and the Termoli engine plant is also exposed.

A small part is causing a big problem for Fiat. Stellantis says a shortage of an electronic component used in the engine control unit (the computer that runs a car's engine) is causing "significant" disruption to production of some Fiat models in Italy, and that it could drag on through November and December. The worst-hit model is the Pandina, the updated Panda and one of the brand's best-selling small cars. Reuters reported on 2 November that the…

Business 3 November 2026

Apple sold $57.6bn of iPhones in John Ternus's first quarter. China grew fastest

In the quarter to 26 September, the first full one with John Ternus as CEO, Apple's revenue rose 11.7% to $114.5bn and profit reached $30.7bn. The iPhone brought in half of it. Apple's own regional tables show Greater China up 21%, ahead of the Americas (10.2%) and Europe (11.5%).

Apple took in $114.5bn between July and September, 11.7% more than a year earlier, and made $30.7bn in profit. It was the first full quarter with John Ternus as chief executive, a job he has held since 1 September, when Tim Cook moved up to chairman. That closes fiscal 2026 at $479bn, the best year in the company's history, according to Apple's results announcement.

Illustration of a brown leather shoe on a workbench under a hanging lamp, inside a sawtooth-roofed factory hall with idle machines and an empty conveyor

Business 2 November 2026

632 jobs go as Ecco shuts the Portuguese factory it opened in 1984

Danish shoemaker Ecco said on Monday it will permanently close its factory in São João de Ver, Santa Maria da Feira, its first plant outside Denmark. Production had already stopped. The move is part of a global restructuring that also closes its Vietnam unit.

Ecco is closing its shoe factory in São João de Ver, Santa Maria da Feira, and letting all 632 of its workers go. Staff were told at a meeting on Monday morning, by which point production had already been halted. The Danish company says it will start the legal process for a "total and permanent closure". It gave no end date. Workers say the shutdown will be gradual, with some staying on for a while. The factory opened in 1984 and was the first Ecco ever…

Illustration of a white-sailed caravel bearing the Cross of the Order of Christ sailing into a sunset, while a broken chain and an iron ball sink into the sea

Business 2 November 2026

Portugal gets the go-ahead to repay another €5bn of its bailout early

The EFSF has cleared Portugal to repay up to €2.4bn of its EFSM loan ahead of schedule by the end of 2026, and up to €2.6bn more by the end of 2027, without triggering matching EFSF repayments. Add December 2025's €2.5bn and that's €7.5bn returned early to the EU mechanism.

Portugal has the green light to hand back another €5bn of its troika-era loans before they fall due. On 30 October the board of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) cleared early repayments to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) of up to €2.4bn by the end of 2026 and up to a further €2.6bn by the end of 2027, according to the European Stability Mechanism's press release.

Business 1 November 2026

Markets tracker: gold, the Fed, oil and stocks

Our running tracker of the markets that move savings in Portugal — gold, Fed and ECB decisions, oil and stocks. Updated whenever there is news.

This is our running tracker of the markets that move savings in Portugal. Instead of a fresh article for every swing, we update this page whenever something matters: gold, Federal Reserve and European Central Bank decisions, oil and the main stock indices. For the background on the Portuguese economy, see our mid-year review. Official data is at the Bank of Portugal.

Business 30 October 2026

Binance just lost $6.3 billion in crypto's biggest hack. It started with one engineer's laptop

The world's largest crypto exchange confirmed the theft on 29 October and paused withdrawals on several networks. About $3 billion has been frozen, Binance says its SAFU fund and own money will cover customers, and blockchain analysts point to North Korea.

Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, lost around $6.3 billion in a hack on Thursday 29 October. That makes it the largest crypto theft on record, more than four times the roughly $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025. The figure comes from Binance's own incident announcement, and withdrawals remain paused on several networks while it investigates.

Business 29 October 2026

Christine Lagarde will leave the ECB on 7 February, nine months early

The European Central Bank president told the Governing Council and European Council President António Costa on Thursday that she will step down on 7 February 2027. Her eight-year term was due to run until 31 October 2027. EU leaders pick her successor, and Costa says the process starts today.

Christine Lagarde will step down as President of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027. She told the ECB's Governing Council and European Council President António Costa on Thursday, and the bank confirmed the date in a three-paragraph press release that closes with the governors giving her a long standing ovation. It is an early exit. Her eight-year term began on 1 November 2019 and was due to end on 31 October 2027.

Business 28 October 2026

The queue for Jio's IPO paid off. Shares opened 21% higher on day one

Jio Platforms, Mukesh Ambani's telecoms arm, opened at ₹1,358 on both the NSE and BSE on Wednesday, against an issue price of ₹1,119. That is a 21.36% premium at the open, and the stock closed higher still at ₹1,419 (up 26.8%) after the most heavily bid listing India has ever seen.

Jio Platforms started trading in Mumbai on Wednesday and its shares opened at ₹1,358 on both the NSE and the BSE. They were sold in the IPO at ₹1,119, the top of the range. That is 21.36% up in the first minute. For anyone who got an allocation, it was quick money. For Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, which owns the operator, it is proof that the record demand was not just noise. When the offer closed on Friday, Jio had drawn around $77bn of bids for a little…

Four Galp workers in dark overalls and white hard hats walk towards the columns and stacks of the Sines refinery

Business 27 October 2026

Galp's €682m quarter shrinks to €201m under IFRS

Galp's adjusted (RCA) net income rose 68% in the third quarter to €682 million on strong refining and Brazilian output. Its IFRS profit fell 24% to €201 million after €453 million of special items, mostly mark-to-market losses on unsettled derivatives.

Galp has two profit numbers for its third quarter, and they are a long way apart. The one the company leads with is adjusted net income, which it calls RCA: €682 million for July to September, up 68% from €407 million a year earlier. The other is profit under international accounting standards (IFRS), the figure that goes into the statutory accounts: €201 million, down 24% from €264 million. Both sit in the third-quarter results Galp published on 26…

Tugadaily bar chart: net loss 80.7, convertible notes 72.4, revenue 16.3 and operating loss 0.7, in US$ billions, first half of 2026

Business 26 October 2026

Anthropic files to go public as ANT. Its $80.7bn loss is mostly paper

Claude's maker filed its S-1 with the SEC for a Nasdaq listing. First-half 2026 revenue was $16.3bn and the net loss $80.7bn, of which $72.4bn is a fair-value change on convertible notes. The operating loss was $693m.

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude assistant, filed to go public on Monday. Its shares will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley running the deal. How many shares, and at what price, is still blank: the company's announcement leaves both numbers out. Everything else is in the prospectus. One figure jumps off the page. In the first half of 2026 Anthropic booked a net loss of $80.7bn. That is nearly double what…

Business 26 October 2026

Galp and Moeve walk away from their Iberian refining and fuel-station merger

Ten months after a non-binding deal in January, Galp told the market that talks with Moeve's owners, Mubadala and Carlyle, ended with no agreement. The Sines refinery and Galp's station network stay as they are.

Galp's refineries and forecourts will not be joining Moeve's after all. The Portuguese company said on Monday, 26 October, that its talks with Spain's Moeve about merging their refining and fuel retail businesses ended with no agreement, after what the Portuguese company called extensive negotiations.

Bar chart of demand in the Jio offer: institutions 70.55 times, non-institutional 14 times, retail 2.72 times, overall 22.19 times

Business 26 October 2026

$77bn of bids for a $3.2bn offer: Jio's IPO is India's most oversubscribed yet

Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms closed its share sale on Friday covered 22.19 times, an Indian record. Institutions asked for 70 times what was on offer, retail buyers under three. Trading starts on Wednesday 28 October.

Jio Platforms set out to sell about ₹30,213 crore of shares, roughly $3.2bn. By the time the offer closed on Friday it had drawn bids worth ₹7.4 lakh crore, or about $77bn. No Indian share sale has ever been chased this hard. The telecoms arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group was covered 22.19 times overall, from 13.9 million applications, which is also a national record. Demand was very uneven, and that is the story in the chart: Institutional buyers:…

Business 25 October 2026

Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25bn over Cambridge Analytica

Judge Francis Mathew in Santa Fe set the penalty on 21 October, after a jury found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law. New Mexico had asked for $35bn to $40bn. Meta says it will appeal.

Meta has been ordered to pay the state of New Mexico $25 billion. Judge Francis Mathew of the First Judicial District in Santa Fe set the penalty on 21 October, in a case that grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal nearly a decade ago. The New Mexico Department of Justice's own release calls it a historic penalty against Facebook.