Friday,20 December 2024 08:20:54

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Friday,20 December 2024 at 08:18

UK and European markets opened lower as investors monitor political turmoil in the U.S. and monetary policy decisions from various major economies.

The United States was plunged into fresh political uncertainty on Thursday evening, after the failure of a Trump-backed spending bill, whose passage would have prevented a government shutdown.

Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell as investors digest inflation data out of Japan, as well as an interest rate decision out of China.

The People’s Bank of China held its loan prime rates steady on Friday, leaving the one-year rate unchanged at 3.1% and the five-year rate at 3.6%.

Gold prices were set for a weekly decline after the Federal Reserve’s verdict on its monetary policy-easing cycle signalled a slowdown in rate cuts, while focus shifted to the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure data due later in the day.

Oil prices fell in early trading on worries about demand growth in 2025, especially in top crude importer China, putting global oil benchmarks on track to end the week down more than 2%.

In corporate news, the UK government has cleared the £3.6bn sale of Royal Mail parent company International Distribution Services to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group.

EP Group said in a statement that it had met requirements under Britain’s National Security and Investment Act to “provide services that are in support of UK national security”.

IP Group that two of its life science portfolio companies, Intelligent Ultrasound Group and Abliva, had received cash offers, resulting in anticipated total cash proceeds of £13.8m.

The FTSE 250 company said the transactions represented significant uplifts from their last-reported net asset values, with Intelligent Ultrasound delivering a 100% uplift and Abliva a 284% uplift.

It said it planned to allocate about 20% of the proceeds to expand its share buyback programme, with updates pending completion of the transactions.

GSK announced positive results from a phase III trial of its ovarian cancer treatment, which met its primary endpoint of progression free survival.

Headline results from the FIRST-ENGOT-OV44 phase III trial evaluating a combination of Zejula (niraparib) and Jemperli (dostarlimab) showed statistically significant difference compared with standard chemotherapy. However, the secondary endpoint did not meet statistical significance.

Markets

At 8:18

FTSE 100 8,071 (-0.42%)

FTSE 250 20,307 (-0.45%)

DAX 19,822 (-0.75%)

At the close

Dow Jones 42,342 +0.04%

S&P 500 5,867 (-0.09%)

NASDAQ 19,372 (-0.10%)

Fixed Income

UK 10-YR YIELD 4.586

Exchange Rates

GBP/USD 1.250

GBP/EUR 1.202

Commodities

Gold $2,606 +0.46%

Brent $72.46 (-0.23%)

Important - No news or research item should be construed as a recommendation to trade. The inclusion of securities within this report does not necessarily imply their suitability for individual portfolios or situations in respect of which further advice should be sought. Information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable but is not warranted to be accurate or complete.