16th Apr 2015 06:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are set to open lower Thursday, as a dearth of European economic data scheduled for the day turns the market focus to the US jobless claims figures due to be released at 1330 BST.
"After the disappointment of this week?s US data the latest weekly jobless claims are not expected to deviate too much from the steady consistency of the last few weeks despite the slowdown in the US manufacturing sector," says Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets UK.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 1 point lower at 7,095.3. The index ended up 0.3% at 7,096.78 on Wednesday, having hit a new record intraday high of 7,111.72, led by miners and oil-related companies, as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi ruled out making an early exit from the bank's monetary stimulus measures.
Global ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece's credit rating on Wednesday and said the outlook for the debt-laden eurozone nation was "negative." Greece's credit, already in junk territory, was lowered from B- to CCC+ due to growing cash constraints on the government and banks.
"Without deep economic reform or further relief, we expect Greece's debt and other financial commitments will be unsustainable," the company said in a statement.
Wall Street ended higher Wednesday. The DJIA closed up 0.4%, the S&P 500 ended up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.7%.
In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 trades down 0.1%, and the Hang Seng trades up 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite is trading up 2.2%.
Brent crude is quoted at around USD63.08 a barrel Thursday, and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate is quoted at USD56.25 a barrel.
In the corporate calendar Thursday, Unilever releases first-quarter results, while SABMiller and Mothercare publish fourth-quarter trading statements. Diageo and Persimmon issue interim management statements, while WH Smith releases half-year results. Debenhams publishes half-year results, and e2v technologies issues a trading statement.
By Daniel Ruiz; [email protected]
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Wh SmithUnileverMothercareDebenhamsDiageoPersimmonSAB.LE2V.L