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LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are signalled to open sharply lower Thursday following a heavy sell off in the US on Wednesday.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 39.2 points lower at 6,951.8. The index closed down 0.4% to 6,990.97 on Wednesday.
On Wall Street Wednesday, the DJIA closed down 1.6%, the S&P 500 ended off 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.4%. The sell-off on Wall Street was led by technology stocks, as reflected by the particularly steep loss posted by the tech-heavy Nasdaq index.
In Asia Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei closed down 1.4%, while the Hang Seng trades down 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.2%.
Oil prices have recovered their losses after taking a hit on Wednesday when US EIA crude oil stocks for the week ending March 20 came in higher than expected. Ahead of the London equity market open Brent oil trades at USD58.06 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate trades at USD51.04 a barrel.
In the corporate calendar, International Public Partnerships and AMEC Foster Wheeler report full-year results, while newly listed DFS Furniture reports half-year results. Budget airline easyJet issues a trading statement as does Euromoney Institutional Investor and Daily Mail and General Trust.
In the economic calendar , German Gfk consumer confidence is at 0700 GMT, French fourth quarter GDP is at 0745 GMT and UK retail sales is at 0930 GMT. In the afternoon, US initial and continuing jobless claims is at 1230 GMT, ahead of Markit services and composite Purchasing Managers' index at 1345 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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