Stock Market News
London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as investors shrug off US CPI
London stocks looked set for a positive open on Thursday, taking their cue from the US, where investors shrugged off a rise in inflation.
The FTSE 10 was called to open 34 points higher at 7,248.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "While yesterday's inflation numbers make a Fed rate rise in March more or less a done deal the prospect of additional rate rises later on in the year don't appear to be causing the same consternation in equity markets that they were a week ago, as US markets closed higher for the fourth day in succession, despite initially opening lower in the wake of the release of the data."
The year-on-year headline consumer price index for January showed a 2.1% gain, unchanged from December and missing economists' expectations for a fall to 1.9%.
There are no major UK data releases, but in the US, NY Empire State manufacturing and jobless claims are at 1330 GMT, along with the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index.
In corporate news, Standard Life Aberdeen said it was making an impairment charge of around £40m after Lloyds Bank announced it was withdrawing funds controlled by its Scottish Widows investment arm.
Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert, Standard Life Aberdeen's chief executives said: "We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for LBG, Scottish Widows and their customers."
"We will be discussing the implications of this with LBG and Scottish Widows."
RELX Group, the information and analytics formerly known as Reed Elsevier, lifted its final dividend 10%, pledged to repeat its £700m share buyback in 2018 and proposed a to merge its UK and Dutch parent companies in a further simplification of its corporate structure.
The group will remain in the FTSE 100 and will apply for its Plc shares to be listed on Euronext Amsterdam after the merger, which will see no changes to its current headquarters, office locations, staffing levels or dividends in what is a cost- and profit-neutral merger.
AstraZeneca, along with Merck & Co, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for selumetinib, a MEK 1/2 inhibitor, for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).
The drugmaker described NF1 as an incurable genetic condition, which affects one in 3,000 births with highly-variable symptoms, including cutaneous, neurological and orthopaedic manifestations.
The FTSE 10 was called to open 34 points higher at 7,248.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "While yesterday's inflation numbers make a Fed rate rise in March more or less a done deal the prospect of additional rate rises later on in the year don't appear to be causing the same consternation in equity markets that they were a week ago, as US markets closed higher for the fourth day in succession, despite initially opening lower in the wake of the release of the data."
The year-on-year headline consumer price index for January showed a 2.1% gain, unchanged from December and missing economists' expectations for a fall to 1.9%.
There are no major UK data releases, but in the US, NY Empire State manufacturing and jobless claims are at 1330 GMT, along with the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index.
In corporate news, Standard Life Aberdeen said it was making an impairment charge of around £40m after Lloyds Bank announced it was withdrawing funds controlled by its Scottish Widows investment arm.
Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert, Standard Life Aberdeen's chief executives said: "We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for LBG, Scottish Widows and their customers."
"We will be discussing the implications of this with LBG and Scottish Widows."
RELX Group, the information and analytics formerly known as Reed Elsevier, lifted its final dividend 10%, pledged to repeat its £700m share buyback in 2018 and proposed a to merge its UK and Dutch parent companies in a further simplification of its corporate structure.
The group will remain in the FTSE 100 and will apply for its Plc shares to be listed on Euronext Amsterdam after the merger, which will see no changes to its current headquarters, office locations, staffing levels or dividends in what is a cost- and profit-neutral merger.
AstraZeneca, along with Merck & Co, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for selumetinib, a MEK 1/2 inhibitor, for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).
The drugmaker described NF1 as an incurable genetic condition, which affects one in 3,000 births with highly-variable symptoms, including cutaneous, neurological and orthopaedic manifestations.
Related share prices |
---|
Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.
You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.
Top Shares pages
- Share price quotes
- Share charts
- Share watch list
- Company Results Calendar
- Top Large UK Shares
- UK Market Sectors
- Stock market news
- Company news
- Share tips
- A-Z company search
More share features
POPULAR Share Prices
- Royal Mail share price
- Lloyds share price
- HSBC share price
- Barclays share price
- Prudential share price
- Santander share price
- NEXT share price
- Diageo share price
- BP share price
- Vodafone share price
- British Airways
- Centrica share price
- Tesco share price
- Taylor Wimpey Share Price
- National Grid
- GKP Share Price
- Marks and Spencer
- Rolls Royce
- Rio Tinto
- THG Share Price
- Aviva Share Price
- Boil Share price
- Easyjet Share Price
- Genedrive Share Price
- SSE Share Price
- IAG Share Price
- Boohoo share price
- HE1 share price
- AVCT share price
- BOOM share price