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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open higher on Wednesday, boosted by positive developments for US-China relations.A weaker pound is likely to give extra support to London's blue-chip index, with many of its constituents earning overseas, amid speculation UK Prime Minister Theresa May could face a vote of no confidence.In early UK company news, J Sainsbury and Asda will lodge an application for a judicial review of the Competition & Markets Authority's phase two investigation into their merger, Superdry warned of a hit to annual profit from unseasonable weather, and Dixons Carphone swung to an interim loss. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 36.66 points higher at 6,843.60 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 85.40 points, or 1.3%, at 6,806.94 on Tuesday."Risk sentiment tentatively stabilised overnight but by no means is the market out of the woods after another whippy trading session on Wall Street. While markets have been overwhelmed by risk-off sentiment in recent trading sessions, traders were in a much more positive mode today on the back of constructive US-China headlines," said Stephen Innes, head of APAC trading at Oanda.In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.2%, the S&P 500 ending flat but the Nasdaq Composite rising 0.2%.In Asia on Wednesday, stocks were more buoyant as the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 2.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 1.7% higher.The chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei smiled and wiped tears from her eyes on Tuesday as a Canadian court granted her bail following a gruelling three-day hearing in Vancouver. Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, was ordered to post bail of CAD10 million, about USD7.5 million, including a cash deposit of CAD7 million.Meng's arrest, which occurred on the same day that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires to hammer out a 90-day truce in their trade war, has escalated tensions between Beijing, Ottawa and Washington.Beijing seemingly upped the ante on Tuesday by arresting a former Canadian diplomat after threatening that Canada would suffer "serious consequences" if it didn't release Meng. Michael Kovig's arrest raised the stakes for Canada and was interpreted by most observers as part of a no-holds-barred Chinese strategy to prevent Meng's extradition to the US, where she faces charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions.The pound slumped to fresh lows overnight amid renewed claims Tory MPs are close to forcing a vote of no confidence in UK Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership. Sterling was quoted at USD1.2482 early Wednesday, having dipped to its lowest level since April 2017 overnight of USD1.2479, down from USD1.2517 late Tuesday. The pound had traded at USD1.2750 late Friday.Westminster was awash with rumours that rebels were on the brink of - or had actually reached - the threshold of 48 letters needed to trigger a vote. Former cabinet minister Owen Paterson became the latest MP to declare he had submitted a letter to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Graham Brady.It followed reports of a wave of new letters amid anger at the way May dramatically put on hold the crunch Commons vote on her Brexit deal after admitting she was heading for a heavy defeat.Speculation that a challenge could be imminent was fuelled after chief whip Julian Smith and Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis were seen leaving No 10 following late-night consultations on Tuesday.In the meantime, the prime minister is set to continue her whistle stop tour of European capitals as she seeks to win additional assurances on the Northern Ireland "backstop" which she hopes will persuade critics to back her deal.However, given the scale of the opposition, it is unclear anything she could bring back would be enough to get it through the Commons.She will fly out on Wednesday evening to Dublin for talks with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, before travelling on to Brussels for a summit of EU leaders starting on Thursday. Her visit follows meetings on Tuesday with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, European Council president Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.In Wednesday's economic calendar, eurozone industrial production is at 1000 GMT while US CPI is at 1330 GMT. Sainsbury's said it and proposed acquisition Asda Group will lodge an application with the Competition Appeal Tribunal for a judicial review of the Competition & Markets Authority's phase two investigation into their merger.The application requests a review of the timetable and process, reflecting both companies' view that there currently is not sufficient time to consider all the evidence given the "unprecedented scale and complexity" of the case.Both parties have engaged "constructively" with the CMA to date and have made repeated requests for additional time, said Sainsbury's. Specifically, Sainsbury's said it has asked the CMA for an additional 11 working days over the Christmas period to respond to a "large amount of material" recently provided to the supermarket."We are confident in the merits of the deal and our ability to deliver the synergies. By bringing our two businesses together, we will invest further in range, quality and customer service, while lowering prices and reducing the cost of living for millions of UK households," said Sainsbury's.Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings said it expects both core profit and cash flow for 2018 to be in the upper half of its full-year guidance. Operating profit for 2018 excluding ITP Areo is expected to be around GBP400 million, give or take GBP100 million, while core operating profit, which includes ITP Areo, is expected in a range of GBP350 million to GBP550 million. Free cash flow is expected between GBP350 million to GBP550 million, and core free cash flow in a range of GBP300 million to GBP500 million.In Civil Aerospace, the strong large engine flying hour growth report in the first half continued into the second half of the year, Rolls-Royce said. As previously guided, full-year growth is expected in the mid-teens range. Good momentum also continued in Power Systems, it said. Defence trading progress has remained in line with annual guidance, with revenue to remain stable, while ITP Aero also continues to trade in line with forecasts, it added. On Brexit, Rolls-Royce said it will continue to implement contingency plans until it is certain a deal and transition period has been agreed. Indivior said the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied a motion by generic drug maker Dr Reddy's Laboratories to immediately issue the mandate following the court's ruling vacating a preliminary injunction.As a result of this ruling, the the court will not immediately issue the mandate, which means the injunction will remain in place and Dr Reddy's will not be able to launch its generic buprenorphine-naloxone sublingual film in the US in competition with Indivior until after the mandate issues. Indivior will file a petition for rehearing by December 20."We are pleased that the court has denied Dr Reddy's motion to immediately issue the mandate," said Indivior Chief Executive Shaun Thaxter. "We will continue to vigorously pursue our infringement cases against DRL to protect our Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) Sublingual Film patent portfolio."Superdry warned of a hit to annual profit from recently unseasonably warm weather, with its outturn for the full-year to be substantially lower than the last. Group revenue for the half-year to October 27 grew 3.1% to GBP414.6 million, while pretax profit nearly tripled to GBP26.4 million from GBP9.1 million a year ago, reflecting the fair value movement on forward exchange contracts. On an underlying basis, pretax profit fell 49% to GBP12.9 million.The clothing retailer said unseasonably warm weather has continued through November and into December, which Superdry noted are its two biggest trading months of the year, across all its key markets. "Given Superdry's reliance on cold weather related product continues and a lack of innovation in some of its core categories, sales have remained under pressure despite a strong performance in the Black Friday week," the company said.This has resulted in a GBP11 million hit to profit in November, and a similar hit is expected in December if trading conditions don't pick up. In October, the company had guided to a GBP10 million hit to profit for its current financial year due to hot weather in the UK and weak consumer confidence. Superdry said it expects underlying pretax profit in a range of GBP55 million to GBP70 million for the full-year, reflecting "considerable uncertainty" in the weather outlook, changing consumer behaviour and wider economic and political uncertainty. For the firm's previous financial year, underlying pretax profit came in at GBP97.0 million, which had been up 12% from GBP87.0 million the year before that. The company kept its interim dividend unchanged at 9.3p per share.Electronics retailer Dixons Carphone swung to an interim loss but backed its annual guidance.Revenue for the half-year to October 27 grew marginally to GBP4.89 billion from GBP4.87 billion a year ago, as the company swung to a substantial pretax loss of GBP440 million from a GBP51 million profit a year before. The FTSE 250 constituent said it booked non-headline charges of GBP490 million in the period, primarily relating to non-cash impairments, mainly goodwill. Despite the swing to loss, Dixons Carphone nonetheless backed its annual guidance for headline pretax profit of around GBP300 million. For the half-year, headline pretax profit came in at GBP50 million, down from GBP73 million a year ago. First half like-for-like revenue grew 2%, with comparable sales in the second quarter up 4%. The company lowered its interim dividend to 2.25p from the 3.5p paid out last year.