13th Nov 2025 06:55
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly higher on Thursday, following the end of the US government shutdown and ahead of the release of UK growth figures.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 6.5 points, or 0.1%, higher at 9,917.92 on Thursday. The index of London large-caps closed 0.1% higher at 9,911.42 on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump has signed a bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history, after the Republican-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to approve a Senate-passed package reopening federal departments and agencies.
The House voted 222 to 209 late on Wednesday in favour of the legislation, which will keep the government funded until the end of January. The package had passed the Senate on Monday.
The bill was immediately sent to the president's desk, ending a 43-day impasse that saw thousands of federal workers furloughed, disrupted welfare programmes, and created chaos at airports as flights were cancelled and delayed.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.3119 early Thursday, down slightly from USD1.3134 at the London equities close on Wednesday.
The euro traded at USD1.1584 early Thursday, marginally lower than USD1.1592 late Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY154.94 from JPY154.74.
In the UK, attention will turn to growth figures released just weeks before the budget on November 26.
According to FXStreet consensus, third-quarter gross domestic product is forecast to rise 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, easing from 0.3% in the previous quarter.
Downing Street briefings have also plunged Prime Minister Keir Starmer into a leadership crisis just two weeks before the budget.
Separately, the Welsh island of Anglesey has been chosen as the site for the UK's first small modular reactor nuclear power plant. The project will be developed at Wylfa by publicly owned Great British Energy–Nuclear and is backed by GBP2.5 billion of government investment.
In France, unemployment rose by more than expected in the third quarter.
Data published early Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics & Economic Studies showed the jobless rate ticking up to 7.7% from 7.6% in the previous quarter.
The second-quarter figure was revised up from 7.5%, while the latest reading came in above the FXStreet-cited consensus of 7.6%.
In New York on Wednesday, Wall Street ended mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, the S&P 500 added 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3%.
In Asia on Thursday, equities were mostly higher. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.3%, the Shanghai Composite in China gained 0.6%, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong edged up 0.1%. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.5%.
Japan's producer prices grew at a slower pace in October but exceeded forecasts, preliminary data showed.
The Bank of Japan said the producer price index rose 0.4% month-on-month in October, easing from a revised 0.5% increase in September.
Year-on-year, the PPI rose 2.7%, down from a revised 2.8% but above the FXStreet-cited consensus of 2.5%.
Meanwhile, Australia's unemployment rate fell ahead of expectations.
The seasonally adjusted rate declined to 4.3% in October from 4.5% in September, below the FXStreet consensus forecast of 4.4%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Gold was quoted at USD4,206.70 an ounce early Thursday, up from USD4,184.48 late Wednesday. Brent oil traded at USD62.66 a barrel early Thursday, down from USD65.19 late Wednesday.
In Thursday's corporate calendar, it is a busy day for updates in London. Among those reporting are Aviva with half-year results, Burberry Group with half-year results, ConvaTec Group with a trading statement, Rolls-Royce Holdings with a trading statement and ICG with half-year results.
In the economic calendar, UK GDP, business investment, trade balance, industrial production and construction output are released at 0700 GMT, followed by eurozone industrial production and Ireland's consumer price index.
The US Labor Department has been urged to prioritise the release of November employment and consumer price index data now that the shutdown has ended.
The reports were originally scheduled for publication today, but the shutdown halted data collection, processing and publication by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By Eva Castanedo, Alliance News reporter
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