Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asian markets were mixed in late morning trade on Thursday, following modest gains on Wall Street, where the Dow closed higher for the first time in six sessions.

U.S. Markets

Following the sell-off seen in the previous session,  US stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.

Today's News

Taylor Wimpey said it continues to see “good demand for new housing” in early 2018 despite a slight drop in its sales rate. The housebuilder’s private sales rate fell slightly over the first four months of the year, with the builder selling 0.85 homes per outlet per week compared to 0.93 over the same period last year.

 

Johnson & Johnson secured a favourable U.S. appellate court ruling, overturning a verdict that had awarded $151m (£108.28m) to five people who blamed injuries they suffered on the company’s Pinnacle hip implant devices.

 

Lloyds said it would not cancel its preference shares following investor complaints about the possibility after insurer Aviva abandoned its plans to scrap the high-yielding shares. George Culmer, the bank’s chief financial officer, provided the reassurance as Lloyds reported first-quarter profits that just missed analysts’ expectations.

 

Royal Dutch Shell reported a 42% rise in profits in the first quarter of 2018, the highest in over three years, boosted by higher oil prices and beating analysts’ expectations. Net income attributable to shareholders in the quarter, based on a current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding identified items, rose to $5.322bn from a year ago, compared with a company-provided analysts’ consensus of $5.277bn (£3.78bn).

 

BP appointed Helge Lund to succeed Carl-Henric Svanberg as chairman. Lund will join the BP’s board as chairman designate and a non-executive director on Sept 1 and will become chairman on Jan 1.

 

Barclays reported a better than expected first quarter pretax profit of £1.7bn ($2.4 bn) on Thursday, although fines and legal costs from historic misconduct issues led to a statutory loss. Barclays took a £1.4bn hit from its settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2007 financial crisis, and a further £400m hit to cover claims against mis-selling of payment insurance products in Britain.

 

Domino’s Pizza Group said first-quarter sales were up 18.3% as strong trading around New Year and Easter period helped offset the impact of unusually colder weather. Domino’s, which has 1,054 stores in the UK but also operates in Ireland, Switzerland and Germany, said group system sales in the 13 weeks to April 1 rose to £311.1m ($433.6m).

 

Oil Prices rose, supported by an expectation that the United States will re-impose sanctions against Iran, a decline in output in Venezuela and ongoing strong demand.

 

Gold Prices were little changed after falling to their lowest in five weeks in the previous session, pressured by a stronger dollar, which held near more than three-month highs, and a rise in U.S. Treasury yields.

Companies Reporting this week

Monday: None of Note
Tuesday: None of Note
Wednesday: Whitbread
Thursday: Capita Group
Friday: None of Note

Early Market Movements

UK 100 7,360.0 -19.3 -0.3%
UK 250 20,005.6 -13.5 -0.1%
GER 30 12,392.6 -29.7 -0.2%
FRA 40 5,410.1 -3.2 -0.1%
U.S. 30 24,083.83 +59.70 +0.3%
U.S. 500 2,639.4 +4.8 +0.2%
OIL (BRENT) 74.26 +0.26 +0.4%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Old Mutual 252.6 +4.4 +1.8%
GKN 449 +5.5 +1.2%
Drax 319.4 +25 +8.5%
Legal and General 268.2 -10.2 -3.7%
Taylor Wimpey 187.25 -5.6 -3.0%
Hastings 260.9 -18.3 -6.6%

Latest Broker Views

Whitbread Barclays Equal Weight 4177 4400
Lloyds Berenberg Sell 65 60
Fresnillo Goldman Sachs Convicion Buy List 1263.5 1650
NMC Health Goldman Sachs Buy 3502 3670

Forthcoming Economic Data

12.45pm: EUR Minimum Bid Rate 0.0% 0.0%
1.30pm: USD Unemployment Claims 232k 230k
1.30pm: EUR ECB Press Conference

 

Sources:

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dominos-piza-grp-outlook/dominos-group-sales-pick-pace-in-first-quarter-idUKKBN1HX0PO?il=0

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-results/shell-profits-soar-on-stronger-oil-prices-idUKKBN1HX0MV?il=0

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lloyds-results/lloyds-bank-reassures-investors-on-future-of-preference-shares-idUKKBN1HW0KD?il=0

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-johnson-johnson-court/johnson-johnson-wins-appeal-to-overturn-151-million-hip-implant-verdict-idUKKBN1HX0BC?il=0

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bp-chairman/bp-names-lund-to-succeed-svanberg-as-chairman-idUKKBN1HX0OB?il=0

 

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