15th Sep 2025 06:52
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly lower on Monday, returning some of last week's progress, ahead of a slew of central bank decisions and economic data in the days ahead.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 6.4 points lower, 0.1%, at 9,276.89 on Monday. The index of London large-caps closed down 14.29 points, 0.2%, at 9,283.29 on Friday. It rose 0.8% last week.
The pound rose to USD1.3566 on Monday morning, from USD1.3551 at the time of the London equities close on Friday. The euro climbed to USD1.1730 from USD1.1719. Versus the yen, the dollar faded to JPY147.43 from JPY147.83.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury ebbed to 4.07% from 4.08%. The yield on the 30-year narrowed to 4.68% from 4.70%.
In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6%, the S&P 500 ended slightly lower and the Nasdaq Composite a touch higher.
"Markets didn't do especially much on Friday, in a day that felt like the 'calm before the storm', with a monster docket ahead this week, including 5 G10 policy decisions, and a data deluge on both sides of the pond," Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown commented.
"Five central bank decisions are due across G10. The Fed will deliver a 25bp cut on Wednesday, though there will likely be both dovish dissents preferring a larger 50bp move, and hawkish dissents preferring to hold rates steady. Given those divisions, Powell is likely to emphasise optionality and the post-meeting press conference, while the updated dot plot should again point to a total of 50bp easing this year. A move lower in the median dot, to show 75bp of total easing this year, would require 8 members shifting their estimate lower, which seems a very tall order indeed."
Elsewhere, there are decisions from the Bank of England and Bank of Japan this week. Both are expected to leave rates unmoved.
In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1% in afternoon trade, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was 0.3% higher. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2%.
China's industrial production and retail sales growth eased in August, while unemployment edged up, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported Monday.
Industrial production rose 5.2% year-on-year in August, easing from a 5.7% increase in July and below the 5.8% consensus forecast cited by FXStreet.
The NBS data also showed that retail sales climbed 3.4% year-on-year in August, slowing from a 3.7% increase in July and missing the 3.8% forecast.
The urban surveyed unemployment rate in China edged up to 5.3% in August from 5.2% in the preceding month, which NBS attributed to seasonality.
ING analysts commented: "Another month of disappointing Chinese data across the board may be creating a sense of deja vu, repeating last year's slowdown around this same time. We expect the recent softening of momentum to strengthen the case for unveiling new stimulus ahead."
A barrel of Brent fell to USD67.30 on Monday morning from USD67.52 at the time of the London equities close on Friday. Gold faded slightly to USD3,643.91 an ounce from USD3,644.61.
Monday's local corporate calendar has half-year results from advertising firm S4 Capital.
The economic events calendar has a eurozone trade balance reading at 1000 BST.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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