Currys led the FTSE 250 on Tuesday, jumping 13 per cent after a profit uplift gave investors a reason to buy back into the electronics chain. The move came as the FTSE 100's biggest climber, IG Group, rose 9 per cent and oil prices drifted lower after Donald Trump said he had abandoned plans to renew strike action on Iran.
The rally in Currys stood out because it came on a day when the broader market was also digesting signs of a softer labour market. Vacancies remained at a five-year low in April 2026, and the British Chambers of Commerce said recruiters were pausing plans to hire workers. Private sector pay growth slowed to 3 per cent, while public sector pay was higher at 4.8 per cent, a mix that pointed to a cooling job market rather than a clean landing.
Patrick Milnes said the picture was getting harder to dismiss. He said the possibility of stagflation is very real, and added that a further drop in vacancies, now at their lowest outside the pandemic for more than a decade, suggests businesses are pausing recruitment because labour costs remain a key concern. That warning gives the share price moves on Tuesday a wider significance: investors were not only rewarding company-specific results, they were also reassessing a UK economy in which hiring is slowing but pay pressures have not disappeared.
Currys is the FTSE 250 company that set the pace on the day, but its gain sat alongside a separate burst of risk appetite in financial markets and a drop in oil after Trump's remarks on Iran. On Tuesday he said he had called off plans to renew strike action, after previously writing, “NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN!” and saying the military should be ready to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran on a moment’s notice. The shift eased one source of geopolitical tension even as the domestic jobs backdrop darkened.
The immediate question for investors is whether Tuesday's moves mark a one-day relief rally or the start of a more sustained re-rating. For now, the message from the FTSE 250 index is plain: company profits can still lift a stock sharply, but the market is increasingly trading against a backdrop of weaker hiring and cautious employers.
