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(Alliance News) - Stocks in Europe struggled early on Thursday, though the FTSE 100 notched a minor gain, as investors held their breath ahead of all-important inflation data from the world's largest economy.
"Data in line with expectations, or ideally softer than expected, should help keeping the Federal Reserve hawks at bay, and contain the market selloff, whereas figures above expectations would be another hit to the investor sentiment, and send equities lower, yields, and the US dollar higher," Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya commented.
The US CPI print comes in at 1330 GMT, alongside the weekly initial unemployment claims data.
A hotter-than-expected CPI reading could embolden the central bank to enact larger rate hikes or prolong monetary tightening at its meetings over the coming months.
The FTSE 100 index opened up just 0.21 of a point at 7,296.46. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 76.25 points, or 0.4%, at 18,573.85, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.59 points, 0.3%, at 823.76.
The Cboe UK 100 was flat at 729.92, and the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.4% at 16,038.17, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 12,785.77.
Stocks on the continent were lower ahead of the US inflation print. The CAC 40 index in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.3% lower.
The pound was quoted at USD1.1383, down from USD1.1416 at the London equities close on Wednesday, and the euro traded at USD0.9989, down from USD1.0049.
Analysts at ING suggested that today's US data is "big enough" to put an end to the recent EURUSD correction, should inflation "surprise on the upside". The euro has spent much of the week above dollar parity.
Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY146.28, up from JPY146.00.
Gold was quoted at USD1,708.98 an ounce early Thursday UK time, down from USD1,713.97 at the London equities close on Wednesday.
"Gold has steadied over the last 24 hours or so after surging late last week and early this in the hope that inflation data delivers what the Fed, and investors, crave so much. It's a very hopeful-looking move and one that could end badly if the CPI data continues this year's trend of disappointing to the upside," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.
In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was 1.7% lower. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo ended down 1.0%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.5%.
Chinese stocks were sent lower as the nation's Covid situation intensified.
Guangzhou, China's fourth-largest city and a major industrial hub, reported more than 10,000 new cases in eight days, while the capital, Beijing, is seeing the highest number of new cases in five months.
China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, stamping out emerging outbreaks as they occur through snap lockdowns, mass testing and strict quarantines.
The recent rise cases have caught oil investors caught "long and wrong" SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes said.
A barrel of Brent fell to USD92.48 early Thursday in London, from USD93.74 late Wednesday.
In London, Centrica rose 8.3% to top the FTSE 100.
The British Gas owner announced a share buyback programme of up to 5% of its share capital and said it now expects its full-year adjusted earnings per share towards the top end of recent analyst expectations.
Centrica placed analyst forecasts for adjusted earnings per share between 15.1 pence to 26.0 pence.
AstraZeneca rose 0.9% as the pharmaceutical firm swung to a third quarter pretax profit of USD922 million, from a loss of USD2.00 billion the previous year.
This came as revenue rose to USD10.98 billion from USD9.87 billion, with revenue growth seen across all disease areas, though the firm noted that in its Oncology division, revenue grew by 24% year-on-year.
Looking ahead to the full-year, AstraZeneca now expects core earnings per share to increase in the high twenties to low thirties percentage range at constant exchange rates against the prior year.
Previously, the firm had guided for a mid-to-high twenties increase.
Haleon was up 1.0% after it lifted its annual guidance thanks to an improved third quarter.
For the third quarter of 2022, the Sensodyne and Panadol owner reported revenue growth of 16% year-on-year to GPB2.89 billion from GBP2.49 billion.
Pretax profit, however, slipped to GBP495 million from GBP507 million, blaming the dip on standalone costs and adverse foreign exchange rates, specifically related to the Swiss franc and US dollar strength.
The GSK spin-off said it expects its adjusted operating margin to be "slightly above last year at actual exchange rates". Last year, the adjusted operating margin was 22.8%.
Haleon also now expects organic revenue growth for the full-year to be between 8.0% and 8.5%.
B&M Europe, meanwhile, was the blue-chip index's worst performer at the open, down 6.5% as it reported a 17% drop in interim profit.
The retailer's pretax profit in the six months ended September 24 fell to GBP201 million from GBP241 million the previous year as its gross margins declined year-on-year.
The main driver behind the gross margin decline was a reduction in B&M's trading gross margin by 213 basis points to 34.9% from 37.0%. This reduction is primarily driven by markdowns in the gardening category taken to have a clean closing position, B&M explained.
In the FTSE 250, WH Smith rose 2.3% as it lauded a significant recovery in its revenue performance for the financial year ended August 31.
Revenue surged to GBP1.40 billion from GBP886 million the previous year thanks to a robust recovery across its travel markets. The revenue figure is the highest annual top-line number reported by the firm since 2006, it added.
The books and stationary retailer also swung to a pretax profit of GBP63 million in the year, from a loss of GBP116 million a year prior.
As a result of its strong trading and its confidence in the future, the company declared the resumption of a final dividend at 9.1 pence.
Elsewhere in London, Alfa Financial rose 5.1% as it reported a strong trading performance in the third quarter of 2022, leading it to raise its full-year expectations.
The asset finance-focused software developer said it finished the quarter with revenue of GBP25 million, up 25% against the GBP20 million recorded in the prior year. This was thanks to strong levels of chargeability in both its Implementation and Product Engineering teams, it said.
As a consequence, its expectations for full year revenue have increased by GBP1.5 million.
Still to come on Thursday, there is an Irish CPI reading at 1100 GMT before the hotly anticipated US print.
By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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