LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares are set to open sightly higher in London Wednesday, with investors likely to focus on company updates and also on the UK unemployment and average earnings data, due at 0930 BST.
"Recent months have seen some signs of a slowdown in labour market activity," says Lloyds Bank. "Nonetheless, pay growth has picked up sharply since the turn of the year and last month?s 2.7% ex-bonuses print was the highest reading since early 2009."
"With the ongoing weakness in productivity growth, a continuation of this pickup would further boost unit wage costs and pose an upside risk to medium-term inflation prospects," writes Lloyds. "We anticipate sharp increases in both regular and headline pay growth to 3.0% and 3.3% respectively, alongside a third consecutive 5.5% print for the LFS unemployment rate."
In the UK corporate calendar Wednesday, Burberry Group and JD Wetherspoon issue fourth-quarter interim management statements, while Severn Trent and Workspace Group issue first-quarter trading statements.
Meanwhile, ICAP releases first-quarter results and Halfords Group issues a trading update. Intermediate Capital publishes half-year results, and Lavendon issues an interim management statement, while Moneysupermarket.com Group issues a trading update.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 4 points higher at 6,757.90. The index closed up 0.2% Tuesday at 6,753.75.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 trades up 0.4%%. In China, the Hang Seng is down 0.9% and the Shanghai Composite is down 4.0%.
China's economy grew in the second quarter of this year by 7% year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics announced, slightly outpacing predictions. Growth was also 7% in the previous quarter, according to the authority. Analysts had expected a slightly weaker growth of 6.9% for the second quarter.
"The national economy has been running within a proper range and the major indicators picking up steadily, showing moderate but stable and sound momentum of development," the bureau said. It said agricultural and industrial production, commodity consumption, residents' income and foreign trade all grew steadily while consumer prices remained stable.
CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler says "this data out of China is a big positive for the prospects for global growth going forward and also eases concerns over the country?s recent stock market rout."
Wall Street ended higher Tuesday. The DJIA closed up 0.4%, the S&P 500 ended up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite finished up 0.7%.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will travel to Germany and France for talks on the Greek bailout deal, officials said Tuesday. Lew will travel to Frankfurt on Wednesday to meet European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. He was due in Berlin on Thursday to meet German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Lew was then to go to Paris to meet French Finance Minister Michel Sapin before returning to Washington, the US Treasury Department said.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday defended a preliminary agreement brokered in Brussels to pass belt-tightening reforms in exchange for loans to keep Greece in the eurozone amid mounting domestic anger over its conditions. Tsipras has until the end of Wednesday to rally support in the Greek parliament to ratify key parts of the deal and allow formal bailout negotiations to move forward, as labour unions and political factions promised strikes and demonstrations to protest renewed austerity measures.
"I won't tell the Greek people what I bring you is a success story," Tsipras said on Tuesday night in an interview on state broadcaster ERT, "but I have tried to do what was humanly possible."
Also in the economic calendar, in the US, industrial production is due at 1415 BST, while the US producer prices index is due at 1430 BST. US Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to give a speech in the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the US Congress at 1500 BST. EIA Crude Oil Stocks are due at 1530 BST. The Fed's Beige Book is due at 1900 BST.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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