7th Nov 2025 06:58
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly lower on Friday, after equities sank in the US overnight amid jitters over artificial intelligence.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open down 6.3 points, 0.1%, at 9,729.48. The index of London large-caps closed down 41.30 points, 0.4%, at 9,735.78.
Sterling was at USD1.3117 on Friday morning, up from USD1.3106 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro was slightly lower at USD1.1533 from USD1.1536. Against the yen, the dollar was higher at JPY153.46 versus JPY153.12.
"It did seem, for a brief time, that things were looking somewhat calmer yesterday, until stocks took a lurch lower once again, sparking haven demand pretty much everywhere else, though yet again there was little by way of obvious catalyst behind that sharp equity downside," said Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.8%, while the S&P 500 sank 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.9%.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury widened slightly to 4.10% on Friday morning from 4.09% at Thursday's close. The yield on the 30-year was at 4.70%, widened from 4.68%.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was down 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was 0.2% lower, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong retreated 1.0%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was down 0.7%.
"Clearly, sentiment remains very fragile indeed, be that as a result of continued jitters over the AI frenzy, those warnings about a pullback from bank CEOs earlier in the week, or potentially just a reflection of the market at large having come a very long way, in a very short space of time," Brown said.
"Concurrently, my belief remains that the fundamental bull case is a strong one, with the policy backdrop becoming increasingly loose, earnings growth robust, and the underlying economy resilient."
Elsewhere, a key US central bank official expressed caution about further interest rate cuts as an ongoing government shutdown continues to delay the release of new federal economic data.
Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, told CNBC that the pause in fresh government data risks an "asymmetric" view of the economy.
While there are a number of private sector indicators about the jobs market, there is less of such information about inflation – a fog that deepens as government agencies halt publications.
"If there are problems developing on the inflation side, it's going to be a fair bit of time before we see that," warned Goolsbee, a current voting member on the Fed's rate-setting committee.
But if conditions worsen in the jobs market, "we're going to see that pretty much right away," he added.
Back in the UK, the contraction in footfall slowed in October as high street footfall returned to growth as inflation still weighed on sentiment, data published by the British Retail Consortium and Sensormatic showed.
Total UK footfall was down 0.7% on-year in October, slowed from a decline of 1.8% in September.
Pertinently, high street footfall was 0.6% higher on-year in October after a contraction of 2.5% in September.
Meanwhile, retail park footfall fell by 0.5% on-year in October, decelerated from September's 0.8% decline.
Shopping centre footfall was down 0.9% on-year in October, slowed from a fall of 2.0% in September.
Comcast, the owner of the Sky pay-television business in Europe, is in talks to acquire ITV's media and entertainment unit, the Financial Times reported.
Philadelphia-based Comcast sees the potential to combine ITV's TV business with Sky, which the US group bought in 2018, to create a leading streaming service in the UK, FT sources said.
Talks are at an early stage, and there is no certainty of a deal being struck, while a number of other possible suitors are circling ITV, the FT said.
According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley and bankers from Robey Warshaw, the London boutique recently acquired by Evercore, are advising ITV on the potential deal.
Robey Warshaw and Evercore worked with Comcast on its acquisition of Sky seven years ago, while Morgan Stanley was among the advisers to Sky at the time.
Gold was higher at USD4,005.30 an ounce early on Friday from USD3,977.52 late Thursday. Brent oil was trading higher at USD64.00 a barrel from USD63.25.
Friday's global economic calendar has unemployment figures in Canada, trade data in Germany, Halifax price index in the UK and the Michigan consumer sentiment index in the US.
Friday's UK corporate calendar has half year results from specialist currency and asset manager Record.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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