Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended in the red on Wednesday as the US expressed a lack of confidence in the state of negotiations with China. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated that he could impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports if he wants, after promising to hold off on more duties in a trade-war truce he reached with China's Xi Jinping last month on the sidelines of the G20 summit.Trump said the two sides were still a long way from a trade deal. His remarks, hitting out at what he says is a lack of follow-through from Beijing on promises to buy more farm goods, came just as high-level talks were due to take place this week, though a face-to-face has still not been agreed.China rejected Trump's claims that the US is being forced to make a trade deal because of a slowing Chinese economy, according to AFP.Beijing and Washington have been locked in a tit-for-tat trade war which has seen the economic superpowers hit each other with tariffs on goods worth more than USD360 billion in total.The FTSE 100 finished 41.74 points lower, or 0.6%, at 7,535.46.The mid-cap FTSE 250 index ended down 41.85 points, or 0.2%, at 19,614.20, while the AIM All-Share closed down 1.21 points, or 0.1%, at 918.56.The Cboe UK 100 index ended 0.6% lower at 12,767.16. The Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.2% at 17,487.73 and the Cboe UK Small Companies finished down 0.3% at 11,146.13.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt closed down 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively."Investors are clearly worried that the ongoing trade standoff between the US and China may hurt economic growth and require a looser monetary policy now rather than later. This is, in fact, something many Federal Reserve officials have tried to emphasise on, including Chair Jay Powell. Rate cut calls will only grow when you have a president who has a very aggressive negotiation tactics," said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.In the FTSE 100, Burberry ended the best performer, up 3.0% continuing its upward trajectory after reporting positive first-quarter results on Tuesday. The stock had closed 14% higher on Tuesday.At the other end of the large cap index, Johnson Matthey was the worst performer, down 3.9% after the speciality chemicals firm said growth in its Clean Air division was offset by lower and flat sales elsewhere during the first quarter of the financial year.During the period to June 30, Johnson Matthey reported "robust sales growth" from its Clean Air division, though the company expects full-year operating profits in this part of the business to be below last year due to "higher than anticipated" short-term costs.The Clean Air unit reported underlying operating profit of GBP393.0 million in the financial year that ended March 31. Sales in its Efficient Natural Resources and Health divisions fell in the first quarter. The company expects growth in both sectors for the full year, though it said Health sales will be "more weighted to the second half" of the financial year. Fresnillo closed down 2.8% after the Mexican gold miner cut production guidance and warned 2019 will continue to be a difficult year.The miner now sees 2019 gold output at between 880,000 and 910,000 ounces from 910,000 to 930,000 ounces before, and silver guidance has been lowered to 55 million to 58 million ounces from 58 million to 61 million ounces before.Fresnillo's second-quarter gold production rose 4.8% on the prior quarter to 221,307 ounces, but fell 5.4% on the year before, with first half gold output down 7.1% year-on-year to 432,417 ounces. For silver, second quarter output rose 9.7% to 14.1 million ounces, but fell 6.0% on the year, with first half production down 10% on the year prior to 27.6 million ounces.In the FTSE 250 index, CLS Holdings ended the best performer, up 3.5% after the commercial property investment firm agreed to sell Quayside Lodge in London to SMC Fulham for GBP19 million. CLS said the disposal price represents a 14% premium to the site's valuation as at December 31, 2018.Galliford Try ended up 3.2% after the housebuilding and construction firm guided to meet annual expectations after a good performance across all divisions.Galliford expects to meet analyst pretax profit forecasts of between GBP112.7 million and GBP116.4 million, which include GBP40 million in exceptional costs. An additional GBP30 million write-down that Galliford had flagged back in May will be taken against operating costs, it said.The pound was quoted at USD1.2435 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.2408 at the close Tuesday."The FX market continues to re-price sterling away from the 'no no-deal' view which prevailed as recently as the start of May, to a 'no-deal is likely' view," Societe Generale's Kit Juckes commented.Sterling slumped to an intraday low of USD1.2382 in early trade - its lowest level in two years reflecting the hardening stance of the two Conservative Party leadership candidates, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.Conservative Party leadership race frontrunner Johnson has refused to rule out suspending Parliament to force Brexit through against the will of MPs.Johnson's team is said to be looking at scheduling a Queen's speech for early November, according to Sky News. The Brexit deadline is the end of October.On Monday, Johnson said the problem with the controversial Irish backstop was "fundamental", and suggested he would not accept tweaks such as a time limit or a "unilateral escape hatch".Foreign Secretary Hunt also expressed opposition to the Irish backstop, but the EU will not agree on a deal if it meant the re-establishment of a hard border in Ireland, which has been a major stumbling block for the UK in securing a Brexit deal. Analysts at Capital Economics said: "As far as the outlook for Brexit is concerned, bookmakers' odds indicate that investors have now all but ruled out the possibility that the UK leaves the EU with a deal before the end of 2019. They still suggest that the most likely outcome is that the UK has not left at all. And for all the talk of no deal, they give it a chance of only one in three."Therefore, sterling could still fall a lot further in the event of no deal, as this outcome is far from being fully discounted. In fact, they are assigning it about the same probability as they did a vote to leave the EU in the original referendum - something which came as a huge shock when it actually happened."In economic news, UK consumer price index rose 2.0% on a year before in June, the same pace of increase as in May, according to the Office for National Statistics. The core inflation rate, excluding food, alcohol and energy, increased to 1.8% from 1.7% year-on-year.The UK government sets the Bank of England an inflation target of 2.0%.Smith & Williamson's Thomas Wells said: "The better behaviour of inflation has been supported by energy prices, as these fell between May and June 2019, compared to price hikes in the same period a year ago. However, food and clothing prices have been robust, and we see upside risks to inflation from these items in the short term if the pound continues its downward trajectory."In the short term, we continue to expect inflation to remain close to target as the outlook for growth in the UK remains hindered by the risk of a hard or no-deal Brexit. What happens after that is a function of movements in the pound."The euro stood at USD1.1224 at the European equities close, slightly higher than USD1.1216 late Tuesday. In economic news from the continent, consumer price inflation in the eurozone nudged higher in June, eurostat figures showed.June's eurozone inflation rate was 1.3%, compared to 1.2% in May. The rate of inflation in the eurozone in June 2018 had been 2.0%.EU annual inflation for June this year was 1.6%, the same as May's figure, but well below the 2.1% recorded in June 2018.Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close, retreating from record highs achieved earlier in the week.The DJIA was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 index down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%.On the earnings front, Bank of America reported record quarterly earnings, driven by the lender's Consumer Bank.In the three months to June 30, the lender reported net income of USD7.3 billion, 7.4% ahead of the USD6.8 billion reported for the same period a year prior.Bank of America's total revenue edged higher 2.7% to USD23.1 billion from USD22.5 billion the year before.The stock was up 0.3% in New York. Still to come, streaming services provider Netflix will become the first 'Faang' stock to deliver its second-quarter financial results after the market close Wednesday.Faang refers to the quintet of tech giants Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet's Google.Brent oil was quoted at USD64.20 a barrel at the London equities close, down from USD66.62 late Tuesday, amid tensions between the US and Iran.Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Iran was ready to come to the negotiating table over the nuclear deal.The Energy Information Administration reported a modest oil inventory draw of 3.1 million barrels for the week to July 12, with analysts expecting a drop of around 2.7 million barrels. "Crude oil's earlier gains are slipping away as, while the drop in inventories was larger than expected, it was still much smaller than the previous week's numbers. If Iran is serious about coming to the negotiation table, then the gains of early July seem to be ripe for further declines; whatever oil bulls do at present, they seem doomed to face a tough outlook. Faltering Middle East production results in US shale making up the gap, but higher US demand merely results in producers rushing to catch up," said IG Group's Chris Beauchamp. Gold was quoted at USD1,422.80 an ounce at the London equities close, up from USD1,408.99 late Tuesday, as the demand for safe-haven assets increased. The economic events calendar on Thursday has UK retail sales at 0930 BST. The UK corporate calendar on Thursday has third-quarter results from budget airline easyJet, first-quarter results from energy provider SSE and interim production figures from miner Anglo American. London Close is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com