3rd Oct 2013 12:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK equity markets are mixed ahead of the US market open Thursday, with stock futures pointing to a lower open on Wall Street as the US government shutdown enters a third day.
US President Barack Obama and congressional leaders failed to make headway as they sat down face-to-face for more than an hour late Wednesday. Obama described the negotiations as "useful", but the two parties appear to be no closer to reaching a compromise.
As well as the budget impasse, investors remain wary as the October 17 debt ceiling deadline looms. The longer budget discussions continue and government remains shut-down, the closer the world's biggest economy gets to hitting its debt ceiling, which will have broad repercussions for the global economy.
Ahead of the US open, the FTSE 100 is trading up 0.3% at 6,457.06, the FTSE 250 is flat at 14,886.6, whilst the AIM All-Share index is down 0.2% at 780.6. The Nasdaq is expected to open 0.2% lower, the S&P down 0.1% and the DJIA 0.3% lower, according to stock futures.
At the individual stock level, Phorm Corp has jumped 60%. The AIM-listed company is the biggest London mover after the creator of a platform that makes online content and advertising more relevant to consumers launched operations in China with an average of 4.3 million users a day in the first week. It's now negotiating with advertisers and publishers as it prepares to go commercial.
Markets are now waiting to see whether US jobless claims, construction spending, and factory orders data will be released as scheduled or whether the US government shutdown delays the release.
US non-manufacturing PMI data from the Institute for Supply Management should be published at 1500 BST, as scheduled.
By James Kemp; [email protected]; @jamespkemp
Copyright 2013 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
AvivaPHRM.L