London pre-open: Stocks seen down after Asian losses

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Monday following heavy losses in Asia. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 50 points lower at 6,941.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Today is bank holiday in the US and Canada; investors will have another day to digest the Fed-unfriendly US jobs data, but then, inflation figures will be under the spotlight for the rest of the week.

"Wednesday's PPI, and Thursday's CPI figures are of utmost importance for the Fed expectations. The US producer prices are expected to have eased from 8.7% to 8.3% in September, while the consumer prices may have slowed to 8.1% from 8.3% on the back of a retreat in energy prices during last month. But core inflation may have continued rising.

"Activity on Fed funds futures gives around 77% chance for a 75bp hike in FOMC's November meeting. The US dollar continues pushing higher, while other major and emerging market currencies continue diving deeper into the mud. The EURUSD kicks off the week below 0.9750, as Cable is again on its way to meet the 1.10 mark. The British gilt market is shaky on fear of what will happen when the BoE stops buying the bonds."

In corporate news, paper and packaging products group DS Smith said that trading continued to be "very good", with interim adjusted operating profits expected to be at least £400m.

Revenue growth was also "very strong" and, as a result, overall performance for the current full financial year was expected to be ahead of previous expectations.

National Grid said trading for the first half of its fiscal year was in line with expectations and forecast annual underlying earnings to be more marginally weighted to the second half than usual after including a full six-month contribution of National Grid Electricity Distribution (formerly Western Power Distribution).

"As announced alongside the sale of our St William joint venture in March 2022, we have completed the sale of most of the additional property sites to Berkeley Group during the first half," the company said.