Market overview: US existing-home sales, Philly Fed index miss forecasts
1501: Existing-home sales in the States unexpectedly slumped 3.3% in April after a revised 6.5% jump in March, missing the +0.8% forecast. Meanwhile, the Philly Fed manufacturing index fell to 6.7% in May from 7.5% previously, shy of the 8% expected.
Aerospace and Defence
10,586.86
17:14 22/04/24
Booker Group
224.00p
16:40 02/03/18
Dairy Crest Group
620.50p
16:34 12/04/19
Food & Drug Retailers
3,791.83
17:14 22/04/24
Food Producers & Processors
7,778.49
17:14 22/04/24
FTSE 100
8,023.87
17:09 22/04/24
FTSE 250
19,599.39
17:14 22/04/24
FTSE 350
4,408.19
17:14 22/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,362.60
16:44 22/04/24
QinetiQ Group
342.80p
16:40 22/04/24
SSP Group
203.40p
16:40 22/04/24
Xetra DAX
17,860.80
17:00 22/04/24
1445: The flash Markit US manufacturing PMI dropped to 53.8 in May from 54.1 in April, surprising analysts who had expected a rise to 54.5.
1108: Analysts at Citi have revised their forecast for 10-year Bund yields to 0.4% from 0.2% previously.
1035: Top of the FTSE 350 leaderboard is Booker, which has upped the ante in the already cut-throat UK grocery sector with the acquisition of the owner of the Budgens and Londis convenience chains. Also rising high is Qinetiq, the ex-MoD technology arm, which has impressed with a 17% dividend hike and a retained 2016 outlook despite falling slightly short of sales forecasts. Dairy Crest shares have curdled on disappointing annual profits result although the company has reiterated its confident outlook. SSP Group is another major faller despite excellent interim results.
1000: The FTSE remains anchored around the 7,000 mark on Thursday. Comment from Brenda Kelly at Capital Spreads: "Last night’s Fed minutes all but ruled out a rate hike in June owing to the weakness of first quarterly growth and the lack of inflation. More recent weak macro data from the US would also imply that even these set of minutes are out-of-date and the market is now pricing in rate hike for early 2016. No surprises were to be found within the minutes." She notes that a raft of mixed corporate earnings this morning in the UK has kept the FTSE anchored around the 7000 level, with the financial sector keeping a cap on gains. Shares in Royal Mail were slightly in the red after full-year UK parcels sales disappointed but earnings hit forecast.
0930: The volume of UK retail sales grew by 1.2% month-on-month in April (consensus: 0.4%).
0915: The flash Eurozone purchasing managers' indices (PMIs) have been printed. The Eurozone manufacturing PMI jumped to a 13-month high of 52.3, better than consensus expectations for a reading of 51.8, but the services PMI dropped to a 4-month low of 53.3 and fell short of expectations for a reading of 53.9. German PMIs manufacturing and service data were both disappointing, with manufacturing printing at a 3-month low of 51.4 in May from 52.1 in April, while the services PMI came in at 52.9 from 54 in April, marking a 5-month low. Earlier, data from Markit showed that the French private sector expanded at a moderate pace in May.
0900: The FTSE 100 is slightly below flat after its first hour of trading. There was a mixed reaction to corporate earnings, while as usual for this day in the week, a number of big companies going ex-dividend weighed on the UK indices. London's blue chip index was trading 0.01% lower at 7,006.62 early on. Greece remains an issue in the Square Mile, with ratings agency Moody's yesterday warning Athens that without an agreement over a cash-for-reforms deal with creditors, the government will have to impose capital controls on its banks to stem an outflow of funds. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is also expected to present a debt-restructuring proposal at a two-day summit of EU leaders in Riga on Thursday. Further afield, HSBC's overnight release of China manufacturing PMI showed an improvement to 48.9 to 49.1, but this is still a decline and missed consensus forecast of 49.3.