PM update: Sterling surges, Bitcoin crashes 20%, Dow Jones pushes past 24,000

At the time of writing (3.50pm) there were reports oil cartel OPEC had agreed a new production cut extension though there was little detail on a Russian response. Earlier Brent crude was up +0.5% and WTI crude also up +0.5%.

Today the pound rallied, re-crossing the $1.35 threshold as more Brexit hope seeped through markets. The euro dipped -0.36% against the pound to 0.8805. The US dollar was under pressure from more White House political instability with news that Donald Trump may want a replacement for State Secretary Rex Tillerson. 

Elsewhere US stocks continued to climb with the Dow Jones punching past 24,000 as a Senate tax code vote looms. The Dow is now more than 525 points higher tfhan it was earlier this week. 

The FTSE 100 closed tonight down more than 66 points at 7,326.6 with Astra Zeneca and British American Tobacco down -2.5% and -2.3%. Mediclinic Int and BT Group were up +4.7% and +2.1% up respectively. 

• UK FTSE 100 7,326.6 -0.90%
• Dow 24,062.31 +0.50%
• S&P 500 2,635.77 +0.37%
• Nasdaq 6,861.08 +0.55%
• Nikkei 225 22,724.96 +0.57%
• DAX 13,077 +0.12%
• CAC 40 5,395.32 -0.05%
• Gold 1,283.20 -0.23%
• Oil WTI 57.29 -0.02%

Which? targets snooping case against Google

Does Google owe you £500? A campaign called Google You Owe Us has been launched by Which? Director Richard Lloyd. Lloyd is representing more than 5m people in the UK who may have had personal data snatched from their iPhones by Google between June 2011 and February 2012.

Potential compensation figures bandied around vary widely, some suggesting as much as £500. "Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we’re not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken," says Lloyd.  

However a Google spokesperson dismissed the allegations to Sky News: "This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it." Back in 2015 the UK Court of Appeal ruled that Google could be sued over the alleged misuse of iPhone privacy settings and the intrusion it represented.

Are you one of 5m people with data taken from an iPhone? Shutterstock

Bitcoin ride gets rougher 

Bitcoin’s wild ride continues though the roller-coaster saw some extreme dips taken today: earlier bitcoin crashed 20% from near $11,000 to little more than $9,000. Later it recovered to $9,499. 

"I would say that you've seen several important, pretty severe corrections to bitcoin over time and it's managed to come back," Mark Newton of Newton Advisers told CNBC earlier today. "From a percentage standpoint, the volatility isn't that different than what you've seen in August."

Bitcoin’s volatility is proving trickier for margin requirements, not least for clearing houses. Most commodity margins, in comparison, are far lower. It’s far from clear just how much institutional and wealth manager interest there is in crypto-currencies. 

The extreme valuations bitcoin is seeing could start to undermine it as a serious store of value. But then again, few people understand it. Its anti-institutional qualities are difficult to track and measure. Yet a number of hedge funds are treating crypto currencies as an increasingly legitimate asset class.