London pre-open: Stocks to rise after solid Wall Street session

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Tuesday following a solid session on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 30 points higher. At 0720 BST, Brent crude was steady at $100.28 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 0.2% lower at $89.27.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "An interesting setup is unfolding at the moment: US longer-term yields keep pushing higher, to multi-decade highs, but the major US indices are unfazed. The US 10-year yield reached 5.35% yesterday, as the S&P500 traded just shy of an all-time high. Even the equal-weighted version rose, suggesting that the rally was not driven solely by technology stocks.

"Meanwhile, the Nasdaq advanced to a fresh record high, despite the latest warning from SoftBank's Masayoshi Son - who is a firm tech believer! He warned that superintelligence in the wrong hands could become 'super dangerous', joining other leaders who, in recent weeks, have called for slowing the development of their most powerful models."

In corporate news, Informa announced the acquisition of event and exhibition organiser Clarion for £2.24bn, and said it was planning to separate its academic business, Taylor & Francis, to focus the group on its core B2B business.

Chief executive Stephen A. Carter said: "Today's announcements mark the latest step in a growth strategy that has seen B2B revenues grow tenfold since 2014, whilst generating more than $3bn of value in Business Intelligence and lifting Taylor & Francis revenues fourfold since it joined the group."

Elsewhere, shipping broker Clarkson said it expected full-year earnings of at least £135m, citing Iran war-related volatility.

In a brief trading statement, the company, which in August said profits would be "materially ahead of expectations", said trading in August and September had been "very strong".

"The ongoing geopolitical complexity has created further volatility across commodity and freight markets, accordingly in some areas we have seen record freight rates and this has also then passed through to asset prices," the company said.

Telecom Plus said it had delivered encouraging early progress against its new five‑year growth plan. It reported faster customer additions, a stronger partner network and improving cross‑sell activity in the first half, while reiterating full‑year profit guidance of £80m to £90m in FY27, with earnings expected to remain heavily second‑half weighted. Net debt to EBITDA was forecast at around 1.5x at year‑end.