10th Aug 2026 06:56
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Monday, on worries over the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran ruled out an agreement to open the waterway unless the US meets its demand.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 35.4 points lower, 0.3%, at 10,865.69 on Monday. The index of London large-caps closed up 33.20 points, 0.3%, at 10,901.09 on Friday. It added 0.3% last week, its fourth successive weekly advance.
Sterling fell to USD1.3487 from USD1.3498 at the time of the London equities close on Friday.
The UK jobs market is showing "rays of light", KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation reported on Monday, with continued growth in temporary billings last month.
The permanent placements index registered 50 in July, indicating no change. This was an improvement from June's reading of 49.1, when the market was still in contraction territory.
The temporary billings index decreased to 51.9 in July from 52.9 in June, although KPMG said growth remained among the quickest since early 2023.
It also noted "stronger upturns in pay" for both temporary and permanent employees, and an increase in temporary vacancies for the first time in two years.
"Despite ongoing uncertainty it's encouraging that businesses are starting to press ahead with investment, which means across the board we are starting to see the data moving in the right direction," commented KPMG UK & Switzerland Group Head of Advisory Callum Licence.
The euro fell to USD1.1550 from USD1.1560. Against the single currency, the pound declined to EUR1.1672 from EUR1.1677. The dollar climbed to JPY158.35 against the yen from JPY157.68.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.65%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury stayed at 5.20%.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards insisted Sunday that they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the US complied with a list of demands, including paying compensation for war damage.
Tehran insists on retaining control of the Hormuz after the war and wants to charge tolls for passage, repeatedly striking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council laid out on Saturday a list of conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the war on all fronts, the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Those conditions echoed the terms of the June agreement, which included a provision to create a USD300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran.
US President Donald Trump is downplaying the prospect of reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran fails to materialise, Axios reported on Sunday.
"We are low-keying it," Axios quoted him as saying in a phone call. The US will not devote itself fully to negotiations with Iran, Trump reportedly said.
"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," he told the news outlet, arguing that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports has worsened the situation.
"It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chess game," Trump said of the back-and-forth with Iran, according to Axios, which quoted US officials as saying Trump was focusing on de-escalation.
A barrel of Brent rose to USD83.94 early Monday, from USD83.40 late Friday afternoon. Gold faded to USD4,340.71 an ounce from USD4,349.35, after a hefty stride on Friday supported by the weak US jobs data.
The US labour market surprisingly shed jobs last month, in a nonfarm payrolls reading that sent the dollar into reverse on Friday.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm payrolls shrunk by 23,000 in July, after rising 20,000 in June. Payrolls had been expected to rise by 80,000 last month, however, according to consensus cited by FXStreet.
What's more, the reading for June was downwardly revised from 57,000, and the May data was lowered to 63,000 from 129,000.
In the US on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.3%.
SPI Asset Management analyst Stephen Innes commented: "Friday's weak payroll report took some heat out of the September hike debate, Treasury yields backed off and equities responded exactly as you would expect when the immediate policy threat gets pushed a little further down the road.
"Now CPI gets the baton. Wednesday's inflation report is the next proper test because the market has quickly moved toward a fairly friendly combination: softer employment, lower yields, easing energy pressure and a Fed that may be able to stay on hold. That is a good setup for equities, but only if inflation plays along."
Wednesday's consumer price index data is expected to show the annual rate of inflation cooled to 3.4% last month from 3.5% in June.
In Tokyo on Monday, the Nikkei 225 surged 2.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.1%, while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney fell 0.3%.
China's consumer and factory prices grew slower than expected last month, official data showed Sunday, as the world's second-largest economy confronts persistent deflationary pressure.
The consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, expand 0.5% year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That was lower than the 0.8% forecast by a Bloomberg survey and the slowest rise since January. Consumer prices rose 1.0% on-year in June.
Sluggish domestic consumption has vexed Beijing for several years, threatening to weigh down national growth even as exports and certain high-tech sectors boom.
Many economists contend that China must shift towards a growth model driven more by household spending than the traditional engines of past decades, including real estate and infrastructure investment.
A gauge of China's factory-gate prices, which measures the cost of goods at the first point of sale, also grew at a slower pace last month, NBS data showed Sunday.
The producer price index increased 3.5% year-on-year in July, slowing from 4.1% in June and lower than the 3.8% forecast by Bloomberg.
Monday's UK corporate calendar has half-year results from building, roofing, and landscaping products manufacturer Marshalls.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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