27th Sep 2013 06:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - London's main markets are expected to open fractionally lower again Friday.
Traders remain cautious as US fiscal decisions appear to be no closer to being resolved. As next Tuesday's deadline ticks closer, US President Barack Obama and Republicans remain at loggerheads over federal budget talks. If an agreement cannot be reached, the US government will run out of money to operate.
Republicans also continue to prevent Obama from increasing borrowing limits in order to avoid the government of the world's number-one economy from defaulting. The party announced that if they were to raise the US debt ceiling, they would seek a one-year postponement in the full implementation of Obama's healthcare law.
IG is calling the FTSE to open 0.02% lower.
At the individual stock level, house-builders look set to have a busy day.
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has announced that he is to give the Bank of England an emergency brake on the government's Help to Buy scheme, enabling it to intervene if there are signs it is creating a housing boom, the Financial Times reports Friday.
The BoE will be able to recommend that Osborne reduces the cap on properties eligible under the scheme, currently set at GBP600,000. It could also recommend that the Treasury increases the fees it charges lenders for the mortgage guarantees.
Osborne decision comes as Nationwide housing prices data rose 5.0% annually in September, following a 3.5% increase in August. This missed consensus expectations of a 4.5% increase, as cited by FXstreet.com.
Watch out for Sefton Resources, as the oil and gas producer starts to trade on the AIM All-Share index Friday.
In a busy day in the data calendar, French consumer spending and GDP information is scheduled for 0745 BST, with Italian business confidence at 0900 BST. A raft of EU data is anticipated at 1000 BST, including business climate figures, consumer and industrial confidence, and services sentiment. German CPI figures are set for 1300 BST.
Later in the day is a series of US data releases. US personal spending, personal consumption expenditure and personal income data will be released at 1330 BST. Michigan consumer sentiment is scheduled for 1455 BST.
By James Kemp; [email protected]
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