1st Oct 2013 06:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - London's main equities indices are set to open slightly lower Tuesday as markets start to weigh up the actual impact of the partial US government shutdown.
The US government was headed to closing down all but essential services early Tuesday after the Senate blocked a third attempt by lower house Republicans to erode health insurance reform as part of the budget process. Hundreds of thousands of US government workers are expected to be placed on unpaid leave.
In Asia, markets which were lifted by positive economic data. The index measuring business sentiment in Japan surged in the third quarter of 2013, the Bank of Japan revealed in its quarterly Tankan business survey.
The large manufacturers index came in with a score of 12 from 4 in the second quarter, beating consensus forecasts of a rise to 7, according to FXstreet.com. The large manufacturing outlook was 11, again beating the consensus forecasts of 10.
Alongside this, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced he would raise the country's sales tax rate in April to 8% from the current 5%.
Closer to home, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said Monday evening that he aims for a budget surplus by 2020. After years of recession, Osborne believes that the economy is recovering. The last time the UK was in a position of budget surplus was in 2001.
IG is calling the FTSE 100 fractionally down 0.03% at the open.
Unilever will be in focus after Barclays and Nomura both cut their price targets for the stock Tuesday morning in the wake of its announcement late Monday that it's experiencing weakness in emerging markets. The consumer goods giant did, however, leave its targets unchanged.
The corporate calendar otherwise looks light with Wolseley's full-year results among the highlights.
Tuesday's data calendar includes Italian unemployment data at 0900 BST, with EU unemployment at 1000 BST. US Redbook index figures are set to be released at 1355 BST. There is a raft of Markit manufacturing data scheduled to be released throughout the day. Italian figures are scheduled for 0843 BST, with French data at 0848 BST, Germany's at 0853 BST, UK's equivalent at 0928 BST, before finally US figures are released at 1358 BST.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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