London pre-open: Stocks to nudge lower ahead of construction PMI
London stocks looked set for a muted open on Wednesday despite a recovery on Wall Street overnight.
The FTSE 100 was called to open five points lower at 7,025.
Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, said: "Wall Street had finished strongly on Tuesday but the escalated trade tensions indicate the positive spill over into Europe will be limited. Traders have been tempted back into usually high-flying technology stocks at bargain up price levels. Lack of confidence in the near term direction for tech sector should limit the market’s upside potential.
"Amazon is yet to respond to allegations by US President Trump that it operates in ‘not a level playing field’ because of low taxes and deal it has with the Postal Service. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg still needs to testify to lawmakers over his firm's data scandal."
On the data front, the UK construction purchasing managers' index is at 0930 BST. Investors will also eye the release of the US ADP employment report at 1315 BST ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls release.
TD Securities expects the March construction PMI to nudge back up toward its late-2017 levels, with a half-point gain to 51.9, versus market expectations of a decline 51.0.
In corporate news, WPP said it had appointed an independent counsel to investigate an allegation of personal misconduct against Chief Executive Martin Sorrell. The company said the allegation did not involve amounts material to WPP.
Smith & Nephew has appointed former Johnson & Johnson director Namal Nawana as its chief executive, replacing Olivier Bohuon after a seven-year stint at the head of the artificial shoulders and knees group.
Nawana, who last year as CEO of diagnostics company Alere oversaw its $5.3bn takeover by Abbott, will join the S&N board on 7 May.
Entertainment One, the Peppa Pig rights owner, reported a "robust" profit performance in the year ended 31 March, with continued momentum in family and television, with an improved second half performance in film. Management anticipates that the full year performance will be in line with its expectations.
Wizz Air posted a 25.2% jump in passenger numbers for March as the load factor ticked up to 91.5% from 90.4% in the same month a year ago.
On a rolling 12 month basis, passenger numbers were up 24.7% and the load factor edged up 1.3 percentage points.