Wolverhampton saw the biggest increase in the cost of renting a room in the second quarter, with costs up by 6.1% year on year to £549 per month.

The latest index from flat-sharing website SpareRoom shows that rents across the UK as a whole remained almost flat, increasing by 0.9% year on year to £748 per month.

In London there was a year-on-year drop of 0.4% in the cost of renting a room, to an average of £980 per month.

While this is down from the peak of £1,014 per month in Q4 2023, rents in the capital are still 26% more expensive than five years ago

Of the UK’s 50 largest towns and cities, Southend-on-Sea had the second highest increase in room rents behind Wolverhampton, with prices up by 5.8% year on year to £695 per month, followed by York, where rents rose by 5.5% to £751 per month.

The biggest fallers were Bradford, with rents down by 3.9% to £460 per month, Manchester where rents dropped 3.7% to £689 per month and Stoke-on-Trent, where they fell 3.3% to £502 per month.

The share of UK renters spending more than half their take-home pay on rent has increased from 24% in 2021 to 26% in 2025.

And three-quarters of tenants now spend more than 30% of their income on rent.

Spareroom director Matt Hutchinson says: “Rents are stabilising, but squeezed renters aren’t feeling anything close to relief.

“For people to be able to rent in their first choice areas, and maintain flexibility in the workforce, we need to see rents fall significantly.

“But, as long as high demand and limited supply are the status quo, we won’t see rents drop to levels that people would find genuinely affordable.”

Surprise, surprise: Winning M&A strategies for turbulent times.

We began 2025 feeling cautiously optimistic about an uptick in M&A over the course of the year but also warned of some wild cards that could spoil the party. Those cards turned out to be a lot wilder than even we had imagined: financial markets have been bouncing up and down like a yo-yo on the daily news flow out of Washington DC, where talk of tariffs has been louder—and action on deregulation has been slower—than expected. Meanwhile, regional conflicts are heating up and long-term interest rates in the US and Europe have defied expectations.

For all the surprises, deals are getting done—and dealmakers are finding ways to navigate through the uncertainties that prevail in today’s M&A market. M&A volumes globally continue to decline: they dropped by 9% in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of 2024, while deal values are up 15%. We continue to see transactions in companies with a local focus within national borders, as well as in service companies or others less susceptible to tariffs. Great companies with strong cash flow and healthy prospects in any territory or sector are still being bought and sold. However, the market has not been kind to the many companies falling outside these parameters. In the US, for example, a PwC Pulse Survey from May 2025 showed that, in response to the tariff uncertainty, 30% of companies had paused or revisited deals. We expect dealmakers to feel the continued fallout over the coming months.

M&A isn’t going away, though. It’s a fundamental part of corporate culture and the lifeblood of the private equity (PE) world. Indeed, that same PwC Pulse Survey shows that 51% of US companies are still pursuing deals—a clear sign that transformation and business model reinvention remain a top priority. It’s a reflection of the new era we have entered, one in which artificial intelligence (AI) and new competitive dynamics are reshaping the corporate landscape, with AI a catalyst for industry disruption and change. As this new generation of technologies takes hold, it’s likely to spark more deal activity.

In this context, dealmakers across the globe are understandably asking, ‘What’s the best course of action to follow?’

High stakes, hard choices

In today’s M&A market with such complex and sometimes contradictory trends, dealmakers are having to figure out their next move. The new realities they face include the following:

Uncertainty may be the new constant. Over the past five years, the M&A market has been defined by near-constant change. The initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic brought dealmaking to a standstill, followed by a sharp rebound and record levels of activity. Since then, however, with higher interest rates and shifting geopolitical and regulatory environments, the pendulum has swung back towards caution. Today’s more complex and unpredictable market presents dealmakers with a far less forgiving backdrop. The result is an M&A environment in which elevated levels of uncertainty are not only pervasive but also structural. For dealmakers, progress starts with accepting that uncertainty is likely to be the new permanent state, which means that they will need to find ways to continuously plan and prepare for it rather than waiting for it to pass.

Capital allocation is facing a new set of trade-offs. Capital is no longer freely flowing—and nowhere is that more apparent than in the growing tug-of-war between M&A and AI investment. Big Tech companies, including Microsoft and Meta, have announced plans to collectively spend hundreds of billions of dollars this year alone to build out AI infrastructure, talent and capability development. This is sparking a super cycle of capital spending, which points towards multi-trillion-dollar global investments over the next five years. The tech spending is not just on AI. Rather, we are in a time of rapid technological ferment in all sectors that is forcing CEOs, boards and dealmakers to make tougher decisions about capital allocation. For some, that means fewer or smaller deals. For others, it means using partnerships, minority stakes, or carve-outs to pursue strategic goals while preserving balance sheet strength. Capital discipline today is about making deliberate and measured choices. Organic or inorganic growth? How much to spend on tech? And on AI? It all combines to make capital allocation one of the most important and daunting decisions for executives today.

AI’s innovation potential will bring disruption and M&A opportunities. The rapid advance of new AI technologies has jolted the corporate world into a new phase of high-stakes transformation. For acquirers, this presents both risk and opportunity: the risk of acquiring a business on the brink of disruption and the opportunity to harness new technologies to innovate and gain a competitive edge. The M&A market is increasingly reflecting this divide, with rising demand for capability-driven deals, such as Google’s proposed $32bn acquisition of Wiz, and a reassessment of traditional assets through an AI lens. The next six to 12 months will be critical for leaders to reposition their companies for the next wave of innovation. The investment in digital infrastructure and energy to support the growth in AI has already started, and companies across industries are rapidly developing AI agents to enhance productivity, reduce costs and unlock new revenue opportunities. Yet making the most of this new tech wave is difficult and expensive. Companies working to embed AI in their business and operating models face challenges ranging from execution risk to cultural resistance. Nonetheless, as our latest CEO Survey revealed, the cost of inaction is far greater: 40% of CEOs say their companies won’t survive the next decade if they don’t chart a new path.

The data on global M&A transactions across all sectors in the first half of 2025 reflects this tension between understandable caution in the face of greater uncertainty and, at the same time, urgency about moving forward with transformation plans. If the current pace of dealmaking continues, total deal volume for 2025 may fall below 45,000—the lowest level in more than a decade. At the same time, the rise in deal values signals a trend towards larger transactions: the number of deals greater than $1bn in value is up 19% since the same time last year, while those greater than $5bn in value are up 16%. The technology sector continues to see the most M&A activity, but deal activity is widespread across sectors. And while overall deal activity remains subdued in most countries, there are exceptions—for instance, India and the Middle East, where deal volumes increased by 18% and 13%, respectively.

US stocks moved higher on Thursday as markets assessed Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings report as well as more tariff uncertainty.

In late afternoon trade, a federal appeals court allowed President Trump’s sweeping tariffs to temporarily stay in effect, a day after the US Court of International Trade blocked their implementation after deeming the method used to enact them “unlawful.”

That means Trump’s tariffs will remain in effect for now.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) closed up about 0.4% each, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) climbed around 0.3% as investors continue to debate Trump’s next move in trade policy. All three major averages had retreated from their highs of the day early in the session.

Nvidia stock rallied over 3% after its first quarter revenue topped estimates. Investors appear to be looking past the AI chipmaker’s warning that it expects to miss out on $8 billion in sales in the second quarter, thanks to US restrictions on exports to China.

Overall, Nvidia’s performance on Wednesday boosted hopes on Wall Street that Big Tech can weather Trump’s far-reaching trade policy.

Read more: The latest on Trump’s tariffs

Meanwhile, Best Buy (BBY) cut its full-year guidance citing economic uncertainty around those tariffs, sending its stock lower. Eyes are now on Costco’s (COST) after-hours report, given the difficult position retailers find themselves in: Trump told Walmart (WMT) to “eat” price hikes associated with new duties following its latest results.

On the economic front, filings for unemployment aid jumped more than expected last week. And in a slight upgrade from the initial reading, the Commerce Department said GDP shrank at a 0.2% annualized pace in the first quarter.

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER

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Don’t bet against the continued strength of Big Tech.

Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth, expects to see AI drive earnings growth and boost the S&P 500 to new all-time highs by the end of the year.

Bartels, whose accurate bullish forecast earned her a spot in Business Insider’s Oracles of Wall Street last year, is predicting a 12% surge in the stock market by the end of 2025.

Related video These 6 unusual signs might show we’re headed toward a recession

“Without any major disruptions, we believe it will be possible for the S&P 500 to reach 7,000 by year end,” Bartels wrote in her midyear outlook.

It’s definitely an above-consensus call, as Goldman Sachs has only recently bumped up its year-end outlook to 6,600, And there are still strategists, such as Stifel’s Barry Bannister, urging caution about a slowing economy and calling for a drop to 5,500 over the next six months.

AI will boost earnings

“What’s driving this is not new,” Bartels said on CNBC on Tuesday. “It’s really the technology of AI that we’ve been talking about.”

Bartels believes the tech sector will continue to drive the stock market upward as new advancements in AI, robotics, and crypto lead to earnings growth. In the meantime, tariff volatility hasn’t shaken her conviction.

Earnings in Q1 2025 came in above expectations, with 78% of companies beating earnings expectations. The outlook for the second quarter is more muted as tariff volatility injects uncertainty into company outlooks.

But Bartels believes low expectations are laying the groundwork for another earnings surprise. She sees tariff rates falling in the next few months as more negotiations happen and believes cooling inflation will help lower interest rates.

In Bartel’s view, let the stock market winners continue to be winners. She’s not concerned about market concentration among Big Tech names.

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“Earnings growth remains relatively scarce, found mostly in Technology and Tech-Related issues, in Industrials, Financials, and in those Utility issues that benefit from accelerating demand for electricity,” Bartels wrote.

Tech stocks have dominated over the last year, with the NYSE FANG+ Index breaking out to new highs and outpacing the S&P 500’s performance.

Sanctuary Wealth

It’s still early innings for the AI trade as companies continue to pour billions into compute, networking, and storage infrastructure.

“Earnings have been the strongest in Technology, along with the return on equity (ROE) — which is why money keeps investing in these companies,” Bartels wrote.

That’s not to say that the market will remain narrow. While Bartels believes megacaps are likely to continue outperforming, she points to broadening participation in the market rally among financials and industrials as AI improves profits across the economy.

Bartels is doubling down on her contrarian position even as others remain cautious.

“The sentiment of the market is still very bearish,” Bartels said on Tuesday. “There’s still some skepticism, so that also makes us bullish on the equity market.”

Tesla Stock Slides After More Weak Sales Data Shares of Tesla (TSLA) lost ground Wednesday as reports indicated the electric vehicle maker’s sales continued to slip in some key markets last month. Sales declined again in May across Germany, Italy, and the U.K. Shipments from the company’s factory in China, which are delivered within China and to other markets, also fell last month, according to reports. However, Tesla also has received some positive news lately, as sales reportedly rose in Australia and Norway in May, according to CNBC and Reuters. The company told Reuters it expects sales to pick up in June, at least in the U.K., where a spokesman there said the automaker had sold through its stock of Model Y SUVs as it awaited delivery of the new version of the popular model. The revamped Model Y was launched in the U.S. earlier this year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk during an Oval Office event last week to commemorate the end of his service as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Tom Brenner / The Washington Post / Getty Images) Tesla shares fell 3.6% Wednesday and are off more than 17% since the start of the year, as a rally sparked by CEO Elon Musk saying he would refocus on Tesla and his other companies has slowed in recent weeks. The EV maker has seen sales slump in the U.S. and abroad so far this year amid pushback to Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration. Musk has since left the administration, and on Tuesday criticized the budget reconciliation bill currently working its way through Congress as a “disgusting abomination” that would add to the current budget deficit and national debt. -Aaron McDade

Investors Have Mixed Opinions About the ‘Taco Trade’ The “Trump Trade” has evolved. How investors should play it is up for debate. The early days of President Donald Trump’s second administration supercharged a climb in stocks that started late last summer, lifting the major indexes and some specific assets—shares of Tesla (TSLA), cryptocurrency—in particular. Sprinkled in was volatility around stock and sectors seen as likely to be helped or hurt by spending and regulatory efforts. Some of that remains in place, but the action these days is largely around global trade policy. Investors are attempting to figure out from day to day what the next twist in Trump’s tariff strategy could be and how it might affect stocks in the hours, days and weeks ahead. That’s taken on particular salience since stocks swooned after the April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcements and then began working their way back. The upshot, for some, is the belief that Trump eventually delays or otherwise modifies policies the market doesn’t like, so trade-policy negativity will be shaken off before long. There’s an alliterative nickname for this: the “TACO Trade,” short for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” coined last month by a Financial Times columnist. (Asked about it at a press conference, Trump was unamused.) Discussion of the term has taken on a political character and become fodder for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other publications. It has also found its way to the lips of investors and analysts. Read the full article here. -David Marino-Nachison

GlobalFoundries to Spend $16B to Boost U.S. Production GlobalFoundries (GFS) shares gained Wednesday after the maker of so-called essential semiconductors announced it would invest more than $16 billion to increase its production in the U.S. The Malta, N.Y.-based company said the move comes in response to President Donald Trump’s effort to build more chips domestically, and the booming demand for more AI products. GlobalFoundries supplies a wide range of tech companies, including Apple (AAPL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The firm said that more than $13 billion of the spending would be to expand and modernize its current facilities in New York and Vermont, and fund its recently launched New York Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center. An additional $3 billion will be dedicated to advanced research and development initiatives focused on “packaging innovation, silicon photonics and next-generation GaN technologies.” GaN stands for gallium nitride, used especially for power devices. CEO Tim Breen noted the company is proud to “partner with pioneering technology leaders to manufacture their chips in the United States—advancing innovation while strengthening economic and supply chain resiliency.” Breen added the skyrocketing growth of AI is driving “strong, durable demand” for GlobalFoundries technologies. GlobalFoundries shares closed 2.3% higher on Wednesday, after rising nearly 6% early in the session. The stock is down roughly 12% since the start of 2025. -Bill McColl

Stocks Get Another Upgrade on Wall Street as Tariff Fears Fade Another Wall Street firm turned more bullish on the stock market on Wednesday, as analysts came around to the possibility the worst of this year’s tariff shock is in the rearview mirror. “Peak tariff uncertainty is likely passed, which should allow modest valuation expansion from here,” wrote Barclays analysts, who raised their year-end S&P 500 forecast to 6,050 from 5,900 on Wednesday. Several other firms have raised their targets for the index in recent weeks, citing easing global trade tensions, continued resilience of the U.S. economy, and the stimulative potential of the tax and spending bill working its way through Congress. Deutsche Bank on Tuesday raised its year-end forecast to 6,550, and UBS last week lifted its target to 6,000. The stock market’s outlook may have improved in the last month, but it remains drearier than at the start of the year, when investors were optimistic about President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-growth, business-friendly agenda. Only two Wall Street firms tracked by CNBC’s Market Strategist Survey have not lowered their expectations for the S&P 500 this year. Read the full article here. -Colin Laidley

What Traders Expect Broadcom Stock to Do After Earnings Semiconductor giant Broadcom is scheduled to report fiscal second-quarter results after the closing bell on Thursday, and traders are expecting a modest post-earnings stock move. Options pricing suggests investors expect Broadcom (AVGO) stock to move about 6.5% in either direction the day after its earnings report. A move of that magnitude would either lift shares to a record high around $273 or sink them to $240, about where they were a week ago. Broadcom shares were rising Wednesday, building on a six-day winning streak that put the stock at an all-time closing high on Tuesday. Shares have gained more than 30% in the past month, buoyed by an AI trade revived by Nvidia’s (NVDA) strong results last week. Broadcom stock has registered an average post-earnings move of 13.9% over the past four quarters, and rose in three of those instances. A 6.5% gain or loss on Friday would represent the stock’s smallest post-earnings move since December 2023. Shares jumped more than 8% in March after reporting record first-quarter revenue amid continued strength in its AI semiconductor and infrastructure software businesses. The stock surged nearly 25% on its strong December earnings report, which propelled Broadcom into the small group of $1 trillion companies. Analysts are bullish on Broadcom’s long-term outlook but see limited upside heading into Thursday’s earnings. Of the 14 Broadcom analysts tracked by Visible Alpha, 13 rate the stock a “buy” and one is neutral. The average price target of $251.70 is about 2% below the stock’s closing price on Tuesday. -Colin Laidley

Apple Stock Gets a Downgrade from Needham Analysts Apple (AAPL) is no longer a “buy,” according to analysts at Needham. The iPhone maker’s valuation is too pricey compared with its Big Tech peers and doesn’t appear primed for a strong device upgrade cycle, Needham wrote to clients Wednesday. Analyst Laura Martin downgraded Apple to “hold” from “buy” and withdrew its price target of $225. “We move to the sidelines for AAPL owing to its expensive relative valuation, increasing fundamental growth headwinds, and rising competitive threats,” Martin said in the research report. Apple’s share-price growth is dependent on a successful iPhone upgrade cycle, which Needham doesn’t expect within the next year, even with the iPhone 17 expected to drop this fall. Apple shares have lost about 19% of their value since the start of 2025, making it the biggest decliner among the Magnificent 7 group of major technology companies. TradingView Smartphone demand in general is under pressure, technology analysis firm Counterpoint Research said Wednesday. The group revised downward its global smartphone shipment growth forecast to 1.9% in 2025—below its prior estimate of 4.2%—citing the impact of U.S. tariffs. North America shipments are expected to decline 3% this year, easily the worst projection for any region. “All eyes are on Apple and Samsung because of their exposure to the US market,” Counterpoint Associate Director Liz Lee said. “Although tariffs have played a role in our forecast revisions, we are also factoring in weakened demand.” President Donald Trump warned Apple last month that the administration will impose a tariff of at least 25% on iPhones sold in the U.S. that are made in other countries, including in India, where the company has shifted production to avoid import taxes on China. One issue for Apple, relative to its peers, is that its strides in artificial intelligence can only be used to improve its own ecosystem, Needham said. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) can drive revenue by charging other companies a fee to use its Gemini models, and Amazon (AMZN) makes money from firms using its Amazon Web Services. “AAPL does not own a Cloud business so this becomes a cost center, rather than a new [revenue] and margin upside driver,” Needham said. Apple will get a chance to make its case for the future at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week. The company is expected to introduce an iOS update as well as a potential new AI partnership with Google, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.4 Of the 12 analysts covering Apple tracked by Visible Alpha besides Needham, eight have “buy” or equivalent ratings, with two “hold,” and two “sell” ratings. Their targets range from $170 to $270. Apple shares were down 0.2% at around $203 in mid-afternoon trading Wednesday. -Andrew Kessel

CrowdStrike Shares Slide, But Analysts Stay Bullish Shares of CrowdStrike (CRWD) tumbled Wednesday after the company’s revenue forecasts came in short of estimates, but analysts are staying bullish on the cybersecurity software maker. Analysts from Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies and Oppenheimer all raised their price targets for CrowdStrike to $470, $450, $520 and $520, respectively. Of the analysts tracked by Visible Alpha, 25 call CrowdStrike a “buy,” while four others rate it as a “hold,” with an average price target of around $488. CrowdStrike shares were down 6% in recent trading at around $459. Despite today’s decline, the stock is up 34% since the start of 2025. CrowdStrike shares have significantly outperformed the Nasdaq Composite so far this year. TradingView Bank of America analysts, lifting their price target but downgrading the stock to “neutral,” said they “favor CrowdStrike’s fundamentals and growth prospects, but believe the valuation leaves only limited upside from the current level,” adding that they expect revenue growth to accelerate in the back half of this year but slow in the coming years. UBS analysts, retaining their $545 price target as one of the most bullish on Wall Street, said they are “inclined to look past some of the near-term revenue headwinds from the company’s outage-related discounting program,” which pressured first-quarter revenue and CrowdStrike’s second-quarter forecasts. Analysts from Deutsche Bank said they are “bullish on CEO George Kurtz’s articulation of how AI is expanding the attack surface and driving the need for better cyber defense (and thus more CrowdStrike).” However, they added that they “remain on the sidelines given valuation and our concerns for consolidation cyclicality.” -Aaron McDade

Dollar Tree Stock Drops as Discount Retailer Warns on Tariffs Dollar Tree (DLTR) shares plunged Wednesday after the discount retailer warned of a hit to its current-quarter profit because of tariffs. The company posted first-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.26 on net sales that increased 11% year-over-year to $4.64 billion, exceeding analysts’ estimates. Comparable store sales rose 5.4%, better than the 3.8% jump analysts had forecast, according to Visible Alpha. The retailer held its full-year sales outlook steady but increased its adjusted EPS forecast to $5.15 to $5.65 from the prior $5.00 to $5.50 range, reflecting the more than $500 million in stock buybacks the company has undertaken year-to-date. For the second quarter, Dollar Tree expects comparable net sales growth “towards the higher end” of its 3% to 5% full-year forecast. However, adjusted EPS is seen down possibly 45% to 50% year-over-year as Dollar Tree works to mitigate and absorb the cost of tariffs. The company said it expects “some earnings volatility” before adjusted EPS rises in the third and fourth quarters. A Dollar Tree store in New York City. Spencer Platt / Getty Images Last quarter, Dollar Tree announced plans to sell its Family Dollar brand to a pair of private-equity firms for $1 billion. Dollar Tree said Wednesday the Family Dollar sale is still expected to close in the second quarter. Dollar Tree shares were down 7% recently, leading S&P 500 decliners. They entered the day up 29% since the start of the year, including a 6% rise Tuesday after discount store rival Dollar General (DG) lifted its full-year guidance following strong first-quarter results. -Aaron McDade

These are JPMorgan’s Top Internet Stock Picks JPMorgan analysts raised their price targets on a number of internet stocks, signaling to clients that concerns over the Trump administration’s tariff policies have at least partially subsided. Big Tech titans Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) each earned a higher price objective, along with smaller names like Spotify (SPOT), eBay (EBAY), Duolingo (DUOL), Etsy (ETSY), and Booking (BKNG). Amazon – JPMorgan expects Amazon Web Services growth to reaccelerate in the second half of the year as supply chain constraints ease. The company has a litany of other potential growth catalysts, as well, including advertising, grocery sales, Amazon Logistics, and its Project Kuiper satellite internet initiative, the bank said. The company moved its price target to $240 from $225. Meta – Advertising tailwinds should help the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp parent deliver revenue percentage growth in the low teens in 2025 and 2026, JPMorgan said. Artificial intelligence has also bolstered Meta’s family of apps, with Meta AI boasting roughly 1 billion monthly active users, analysts noted. The bank bumped its target for Meta to $735 from $675. Alphabet – Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) was also listed among JPMorgan’s top internet picks, although its price target remained unchanged at $195. Google has executed well its rollout of AI search tools, including AI Overviews last year and the recent introduction of AI Mode for search, the bank said. JPMorgan also pointed to the growth of Waymo, Alphabet’s driverless taxi business. The company has partnered with Uber (UBER) and currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, with Atlanta and Miami next on deck. Spotify and Others – The music streaming giant is expected to see low-mid teens revenue growth driven by its premium subscriber base, JPMorgan said, raising its target to $730 from $670. Meanwhile, online sellers eBay and Etsy should each benefit from China tariff relief, while Duolingo showed strength by beating expectations with recent quarterly results and guidance, the bank said.

-Andrew Kessel

Wells Fargo Shares Rise as Fed Lifts Asset Cap The Federal Reserve has lifted restrictions imposed on Wells Fargo’s (WFC) growth seven years ago following a series of scandals, including one where staff set up fake accounts. The news that the Fed had removed the approximately $1.95 trillion cap on the bank’s assets sent Wells Fargo shares higher Wednesday morning. The stock was up about 3% in the opening minutes of trading. On Tuesday, Wells Fargo said that the Fed’s Board of Governors had concluded that the lender had met the conditions the regulator had imposed to improve its governance and risk controls. The bank also said it had met the Fed condition that a third-party review its work independently. “The Federal Reserve’s decision to lift the asset cap marks a pivotal milestone in our journey to transform Wells Fargo,” Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said. “We have changed and simplified our business mix, and we have transformed the management team and how we run the company.” Citi analysts said the “most meaningful benefits of the removal are that WFC can take on more commercial deposits and use more balance sheet to fund trading growth; however, we don’t expect immediate tailwinds to loan growth or expense efficiencies.” Citi said that loan growth has been limited less by the asset cap than the uncertain economy that is weighing on loan demand. The brokerage, which has a neutral call on Well Fargo, said most of the removal of the cap has already been priced in. Scharf also noted the work of the company’s 215,000 employees and announced plans to give full-time employees a special $2,000 award, with most of the staffers getting the funds as a restricted stock grant. With its gains this morning, Wells Fargo shares are up about 10% in 2025. Wells Fargo shares have outpaced the performance of the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Invesco KBW Bank ETF since the start of the year. TradingView -Nisha Gopalan