London pre-open: Stocks to rise after Wall Street gains

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following a positive close on Wall Street and solid gains for Japan's Nikkei, which was up 2.3%. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 30 points higher.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, noted that the ADP numbers on Wednesday showed the US economy lost 32,000 jobs in November.

"And no, it's not AI's fault. Small companies with fewer than 50 employees shed 120,000 jobs last month, according to the latest ADP report.

"Those losses outweighed gains in bigger companies. Overall, 32,000 people lost their jobs - the fourth negative print in the last six months. On average, the big and beautiful US economy has added fewer than 20'000 jobs per month over the past six months - a level comfortably pointing at recession.

"Add to that the big companies, like Apple and Microsoft, planning headcount reductions - this time citing AI - and you get a pretty... amazing picture for the financial markets.

"The job losses will push the Federal Reserve (Fed) toward faster and deeper rate cuts. And if, on top of that, people slow their spending because they're out of work and inflation eases, that would be the cherry on top.

"Odd, but that's exactly how markets process information.

"Yesterday was a typical 'bad news is good news' session. You could see the cheery mood across US assets: job losses sent the 2-year Treasury yield below 3.50%, the probability of a 25bp cut in December rose to 90%, and the S&P 500 traded at 6'862 - just 58 points, or less than 1%, below its all-time high."

In corporate news, retailer Frasers Group held annual guidance despite a fall in half-year profit amid weak consumer confidence and excess inventory which continued to weigh on the sector, leading to heavy discounting.

Adjusted pre-tax profit fell 2.8% to £290.9m on the back of higher impairments and increased interest costs, although this was offset by a £34m gain from the disposal of the Coventry Arena and increase in premiums from strategic investments.

Revenue rose 5% to £2.58bn, driven by international revenue growth of 42.8%.

AJ Bell announced a share buyback of up to £50m as it hailed a record full-year performance, with revenue up 18% to £317.8m and pre-tax profit 22% higher at £137.8m.

The investment platform highlighted "excellent" growth in customer numbers, which were up 19% during the year, and record assets under administration of £103.3bn, up 19%.

Telecommunications giant Vodafone said that its African subsidiary, Vodacom, has agreed to acquire an effective 20% stake in Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecoms operator.

Vodacom will acquire 15% from the Government of Kenya for €1.36bn in cash, and 5% from Vodafone for €450m in cash.