Hot Features
Premium
Trade smarter, not harder: Unleash your inner pro with our toolkit and live discussions.
London open: Stocks rally ahead of payrolls report
London stocks rose in early trade on Friday as investors eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 7,591.47.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “Some relief may spill over into today’s session, as Amazon made its bid to salvage the situation with a strong report which sent its shares soaring by 17% after the bell. Similarly, Snap and Pinterest were also marked sharply higher. With attention now turning to the non-farms payroll report due later, the effects of the Omicron variant spilling over to January may be a feature of the numbers.
“The consensus is for just 150,000 jobs to have been added, following a disappointing 199000 the previous month, which would confirm the status of near full employment in the US and would also serve as a reminder that interest rate rises are imminent. Of additional interest this month will be the wage growth number, where job shortages in some sectors may well be driving wage inflation, itself underlining the Federal Reserve’s hardening stance.”
The payrolls report is due at 1330 GMT, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings. On home turf, Markit’s UK construction PMI for January is at 0930 GMT.
In equity markets, Airtel Africa was the standout gainer on the FTSE 100 after the telecoms company reported a sharp rise in third-quarter profit, driven by strong revenue growth.
Travel food outlet operator SSP Group also gained despite saying that the Omicron Covid variant and government restrictions saw trading in the eight weeks to January 30 slump to 57% of pre-pandemic levels.
The Upper Crust owner said recent weeks “have been more encouraging”, as curbs were lifted in the UK and some Continental European markets, with sales now trending positively again, driven mainly by strengthening trading in the rail sector as commuter travel returns.
Top 10 FTSE 100 Risers
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Bp Plc | +2.85% | +11.20 | 403.60 |
| 2 |  |
Bt Group Plc | +2.07% | +3.85 | 189.90 |
| 3 |  |
Smurfit Kappa Group Plc | +1.97% | +78.00 | 4,044.00 |
| 4 |  |
Rio Tinto Plc | +1.66% | +89.00 | 5,463.00 |
| 5 |  |
Anglo American Plc | +1.57% | +52.00 | 3,368.00 |
| 6 |  |
Informa Plc | +1.45% | +8.00 | 558.00 |
| 7 |  |
Wpp Plc | +1.38% | +16.00 | 1,177.50 |
| 8 |  |
Vodafone Group Plc | +1.17% | +1.56 | 135.14 |
| 9 |  |
Imperial Brands Plc | +1.04% | +18.00 | 1,742.00 |
| 10 |  |
Bhp Group Limited | +1.04% | +25.00 | 2,440.00 |
Top 10 FTSE 100 Fallers
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Hargreaves Lansdown Plc | -2.44% | -33.00 | 1,321.50 |
| 2 |  |
Melrose Industries Plc | -2.11% | -3.20 | 148.50 |
| 3 |  |
Carnival Plc | -1.84% | -25.60 | 1,363.80 |
| 4 |  |
Antofagasta Plc | -1.47% | -18.50 | 1,240.00 |
| 5 |  |
Easyjet Plc | -1.12% | -7.00 | 620.40 |
| 6 |  |
Micro Focus International Plc | -0.97% | -4.40 | 449.90 |
| 7 |  |
St. James’s Place Plc | -0.82% | -12.50 | 1,521.00 |
| 8 |  |
Lloyds Banking Group Plc | -0.77% | -0.41 | 52.89 |
| 9 |  |
Prudential Plc | -0.77% | -9.50 | 1,226.00 |
| 10 |  |
International Consolidated Airlines Group S.a. | -0.71% | -1.12 | 156.48 |
Europe open: Shares stage small rally as Amazon results boost sentiment
European shares edged ahead at the opening Friday on the back of a better-than-expected results from Amazon overnight and firmer oil stocks.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.24% in early deals with most regional bourses higher after falling almost 2% on Thursday. US Nasdaq futures were up 1.5%.
Investors were also eyeing the US non-farm payrolls report later in the day.
“Some relief may spill over into today’s session, as Amazon made its bid to salvage the situation with a strong report which sent its shares soaring by 17% after the bell,” said Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter.
“Similarly, Snap and Pinterest were also marked sharply higher. With attention now turning to the non-farms payroll report due later, the effects of the Omicron variant spilling over to January may be a feature of the numbers.
“The consensus is for just 150,000 jobs to have been added, following a disappointing 199000 the previous month, which would confirm the status of near full employment in the US and would also serve as a reminder that interest rate rises are imminent.”
Oil stocks were higher, driven by a rise in crude prices as freezing weather hit the US and posed a threat to supplies.
In equity news, shares in Assa Abloy, the world’s biggest lockmaker, rose to the top of the Stoxx as the company reported fourth-quarter operating earnings slightly above market forecasts and proposed raising its annual dividend.
Sanofi shares gained after the French drugmaker posted upbeat quarterly numbers and said it still expected its Covid-19 vaccine to win approval in the first quarter and help drive further earnings growth this year.
US close: Stocks weaker after Meta numbers seriously disappoint
Wall Street’s indices closed in negative territory on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the losses, as market participants thumbed over another round of corporate earnings and a number of fresh data points.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.45% at 35,111.16, as the S&P 500 lost 2.44% to 4,477.44 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 3.74%.
The Dow closed 518.17 points lower on Thursday, more-than-erasing the gains it recorded in the previous session.
“The growing optimism of the past few days has been rudely shattered by Meta’s terrible earnings,” said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.
“The shock is weighing on market sentiment, although of course the Nasdaq is the hardest hit.
“Investors thought that they could breathe more easily as earnings remained solid, but the sight of one of the market’s darlings suffering a brutal fall from grace has diminished the appetite of many to buy the dip.”
On the macro front, new first-time jobless claims fell by 23,000 to 238,000 in the week ended 29 January, according to the Labor Department, for the lowest reading in three weeks and below economists’ expectations for a print of 245,000.
Continuing claims fell by 44,000 to 1.628m in the week ended 22 January.
However, the four-week moving average, which strips out week-to-week volatility came in at 255,000, its highest reading since mid-November 2021.
Also in data news, job cuts increased slightly to 19,064 in January but were still 76% lower than the same month in 2021, according to Challenger, Grey and Christmas, as Omicron likely weighed on numbers last month.
Elsewhere, a final reading of IHS Markit‘s composite PMI was revised slightly higher to 51.1 in January from a preliminary reading of 50.8, while the services PMI rose to 51.2 from the flash estimate of 50.9.
Factory orders, meanwhile, fell 0.4% in December, according to the Commerce Department, and the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing PMI fell 1.2 percentage points in January to 57.6%, indicating expansion in the overall economy for the 20th month in a row after a contraction in April and May 2020.
Finally, unit labour costs in the US undershot economists’ forecasts by a wide margin at the end of 2021 as productivity growth surged.
According to the Department of Labor, unit labour costs increased at a quarterly annualised pace of 0.3% in the fourth quarter.
Labour productivity, on the other hand, jumped at a 6.6% pace, well ahead of consensus estimates for a reading of 2.3%.
In equities, market participants were looking over Facebook parent company Meta‘s overnight update early on Thursday, with the results revealing that quarterly profits fell short of expectations as it also issued weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter.
Meta Platforms plunged 26.39% by the end of trading.
Spotify Technology tumbled 16.76%, after the streaming giant revealed a slowdown in premium subscriber growth overnight, as it battled a public relations crisis surrounding Covid-19 misinformation spread by its in-house Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Cosmetics giant Estee Lauder was 5.03% weaker even after it raised its full-year forecasts on the back of heightened demand for skincare and make-up, while the Carlyle Group slid 7.77% despite its fourth-quarter earnings rising almost 400%, following record asset sales.
Eli Lilly reversed earlier gains to close down 2.4%, after its quarterly earnings beat expectations on the back of more than $1.0bn in Covid-19 antibodies revenue, while Biogen lost 2.13% after it issued some disappointing guidance with its latest earnings.
Merck was down 3.66% after it also provided guidance that was short of estimates.
On the upside, Ralph Lauren added 3.53% after the fashion brand smashed earnings and revenue estimates, and raised its full-year outlook.
Friday newspaper round-up: Road pricing, KPMG, Facebook
Motorists will have to pay by the mile to make up a £35bn tax shortfall that will arise from the shift to electric vehicles, MPs have warned, calling on the government to act urgently to bring in a national road pricing scheme. The cross-party Commons transport select committee said it saw “no viable alternative” to road pricing and work should start immediately on creating a replacement for fuel duty before it dwindled away with the transition. – Guardian
KPMG is being sued for £1.3bn by government officials liquidating the collapsed contractor Carillion, in an unprecedented legal action against one of the big four auditors. Carillion’ collapsed in January 2018 with £7bn in debts, resulting in 3,000 job losses and chaos across government and private-sector construction projects ranging from hospitals, schools, roads and even work on Liverpool football club’s stadium, Anfield. – Guardian
The son of one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political allies is cashing in on BP’s plans to move away from fossil fuels. William Tebbit has sold a multimillion-pound stake in his business that converts vegetable oil into fuel for lorries to the FTSE 100 energy giant. His father, Lord Tebbit, presided over the phased privatisation of BP as trade and industry secretary under Mrs Thatcher. – Telegraph
Australia’s richest man has launched the world’s first criminal prosecution against Facebook, claiming that the social media platform breached anti-money laundering laws by allowing Russian scammers to advertise on its website. Andrew Forrest, a mining and metals magnate said to be worth A$27.5 billion, (£14.4 billion), alleges that Facebook failed to take sufficient action to remove scam adverts, including some featuring his image. – The Times
The team behind GCP Student Living, which was sold to Blackstone for nearly £1 billion last year, is coming back to the London stock market with a new “co-living” business. GCP Co-Living is looking to raise £300 million from City investors to buy three blocks of apartments – two already built and one in development. The blocks, all in London, are being bought from The Collective, a British property group that pioneered co- living schemes but which fell into administration last year. – The Times
