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LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 is set to open higher Monday, despite weak economic data from China, as Greece edges closer to concluding its third debt bailout deal.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open higher at 6,746.9. The index closed down 0.4% at 6,718.49 on Friday, after a strong US jobs report saw investors pricing in a September rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
Job growth in the US slowed for the second consecutive month in July, according to the Labor Department, although its report still showed a notable increase in employment. It said non-farm payroll employment rose by 215,000 jobs in July following an upwardly revised increase of 231,000 jobs in June and a jump of 260,000 jobs in May. The consensus, according to FXStreet.com, predicted jobs to rise by 222,000, compared to the original 223,000 growth seen in June.
On Wall Street Friday, the DJIA, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite all ended down 0.3%.
In Asia Monday, the Japanese Nikkei is up 0.3%, the Hang Seng trades down 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite is up 3.9%.
Chinese exports declined sharply at a faster-than-expected pace in July, figures from the General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday. Exports decreased 8.3% year-on-year in July, reversing the 2.8% increase in the previous month. Economists had expected exports to decline 1.5%. At the same time, imports were down 8.1% in July, which was forecast to fall 8%. The trade surplus totalled USD43.03 billion, below the expected surplus of USD54.7 billion.
Meanwhile, Greece's creditors agreed amongst themselves a draft bailout memorandum that they now hope to finalise with Athens in the coming days, sources said on Saturday, amid growing pressure on the two sides to strike a deal. Athens has been negotiating the new bailout - its third in five years - with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund for two weeks. The two sides are under pressure to strike a deal and give Greece access to bailout funds by August 20, when it is supposed to make a EUR3.2 billion debt repayment to the ECB.
"The goal of the [creditor] institutions is to agree a memorandum of understanding with the Greeks by Tuesday," a eurozone source said on condition of anonymity.
In a quiet UK corporate calendar, there are half-year results from motor insurer esure Group, and software and services firm Gresham Computing.
In an equally quiet economic calendar, there is the Sentix investor confidence survey for the eurozone at 0930 BST, and US labour market conditions index at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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