Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares opened flat in London Friday amid growing expectations for a US interest rate hike this summer.

A speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen at 1815 GMT, after the London equities close, will be watched carefully after several of her policymaking colleagues have sounded increasingly hawkish. The speech follows a US GDP reading at 1330 GMT.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
----------
MARKETS
----------
FTSE 100: flat at 6,263.48
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,177.43
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 735.47
----------
Hang Seng: up 0.6% at 20,518.38
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.4% at 16,834.84
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 17,828.29
S&P 500: closed flat at 2,090.10
----------
GBP: down at USD1.4647 (USD1.4680)
EUR: unchanged at USD1.1181 (USD1.1181)

GOLD: down at USD1,220.87 per ounce (USD1,222.30)
OIL (Brent): down at USD49.09 a barrel (USD49.81)

(changes since previous London equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:00 Italy consumer and business confidence
11:00 Ireland retail sales
13:30 US gross domestic product annualized preliminary
13:30 US personal consumption expenditures prices preliminary
15:00 US Reuters/Michigan consumer sentiment index
18:00 US Baker Hughes US oil rig count
18:15 US Fed Chair Yellen speech
----------
The Federal Reserve is likely to raise US interest rates in the near term, according to Fed Governor Jerome Powell. "If incoming data continue to support those expectations, I would see it as appropriate to continue to gradually raise the federal funds rate. Depending on the incoming data and the evolving risks, another rate increase may be appropriate fairly soon," Powell said. Powell joins a chorus of Fed officials signaling a rate hike the summer, perhaps as early as June. US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks at Harvard University at 1815 BST Friday.
----------
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has won further international backing in his battle to keep Britain in the EU, with a statement from G7 leaders meeting in Japan that Brexit would be a "serious risk" to world growth. The declaration follows similar comments from G7 finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and will be used by the Prime Minister as further ammunition in his efforts to persuade voters to opt to Remain in the June 23 referendum.
----------
Consumer confidence in the UK showed a bit of improvement in May but remained pessimistic, the latest survey from GfK revealed, with an index score of -1. That beat forecasts for -4 and was an improvement over April's -3, although it still was negative. Expectations for the coming year remained a key drag, rising one point to a still weak -13.
----------
China's industrial profits increased in April but at a slower pace, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Industrial profits grew 4.2% year-on-year, much slower than the 11.1% expansion seen in March. During January to April, industrial profits increased 6.5% from the same period of last year compared to a 7.4% rise in three months to March. Profits at state-owned firms declined 7.8%, while private firms' profits increased 8.4% in January to April period.
----------
Consumer prices in Japan fell 0.3% on year in April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. That beat forecasts for -0.4%, although it weakened from -0.1% in March. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food prices, also dipped 0.3%. That was unchanged from the previous reading and it beat forecasts for -0.4%.
----------
Barack Obama was Friday to be the first sitting US president to visit the western Japanese city of Hiroshima, where where US forces dropped the first of two atomic bombs in the final days of World War II more than seven decades ago. Obama will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "to honour all those who were lost in World War II and reaffirm our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons," the president said Wednesday after his arrival in Japan to attend a G7 summit. Obama will not present US apologies for the bombing, he said, but will use the trip to underscore "the very real risks that are out there and the sense of urgency we all should have" about nuclear weapons, he said Thursday the Japanese resort of Ise-Shima.
----------
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he was honoured after learning he had reached the number of the delegates needed to secure Republican presidential nomination. Trump captured the delegates needed to push him to victory him at the party convention, according to a tally by the Associated Press. Trump has won 1,238 delegates, one more than needed to win the nomination, the news agency found after surveying unbound delegates who are free to vote for any candidate at the convention.
----------
BROKER RATING CHANGES
----------
BARCLAYS INITIATES CRODA INTERNATIONAL WITH 'OVERWEIGHT' - TARGET 3400 PENCE
----------
GOLDMAN CUTS BIG YELLOW GROUP TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 995 (965) PENCE
----------
SOCGEN CUTS MARKS & SPENCER TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 424 (545) PENCE
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 100
----------
Miner Anglo American said Bruce Cleaver has been appointed as the new chief executive of its De Beers diamond business. Cleaver will take over from Philippe Mellier, who has stepped down from the role after five years. Cleaver moves from his role at director of strategy and business development at Anglo American. Duncan Wanblad, the chief executive of Anglo American's base metals unit, will take on Cleaver's previous duties in addition to his current role.
----------
Building materials company Wolseley said Simon Nicholls will not take up the position of chief financial officer later this year as previously announced. Wolseley had said in January that Nicholls would be joining the company from Cobham, the defence and aerospace group, where he is currently chief financial officer. However, on Friday, Wolseley said this was not longer the case and said instead David Keltner, who is the chief financial officer of Wolseley's US subsidiary Ferguson Enterprises Inc, will be appointed as interim chief financial officer. Wolseley didn't provide a reason for the change, and Cobham made no immediate announcement early Friday.
----------
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said the US Food & Drug Administration has issued a complete response letter on the new drug application made for sodium zirconium cyclosilicate, while also saying it secured good results from its Faslodex trials. AstraZeneca said its faslodex drug met its primary endpoint for treating advanced breast cancer. The company said the drug met its target of extended progression-free survival.
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 250
----------
Closed-life fund consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings said it has agreed a GBP375.0 million deal to acquire the pensions and protection business of AXA Wealth, the wealth management arm of French insurer AXA. Phoenix will pay the consideration in cash, and the deal will add around GBP12.3 billion in assets under management to its books, along with more than 910,000 policies. The businesses acquired trade under the Embassy and SunLife brands. The deal will be funded by a share placing, through which Phoenix will seek to raise around GBP190.0 million, along with a new debt facility with a consortium of banks.
----------
Bodycote maintained its expectations for 2016, as revenue fell in the first four months of the year. The company, which supplies heat treatment, metal joining, hot isostatic pressing and coatings services, said group revenue for the four months to the end of April was GBP192.4 million, down 4.9% year-on-year, or 9.1% at constant currencies. After taking into account Bodycote's exit from its business in Brazil and the restructuring actions it announced in 2015, like-for-like revenue fell 2.7%, it said, and 7.0% at constant currencies.
----------
Defence contractor Ultra Electronics Holdings said it has agreed a deal to sell its ID business to private equity house LDC. Ultra will sell the business, which designs and manufactures card printers and associated products, for an initial GBP22.0 million in cash, with a further GBP3.0 million due based on earnings growth over the next two years.
----------
HICL Infrastructure Co said it has purchased a 60% stake in the Ireland Primary Care Centres project for EUR11.6 million. The infrastructure investment company said the the project is a 26 year concession for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of fourteen primary care centres across Ireland. New facilities will be built in Dublin, as well as at locations in Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Waterford, Tipperary and Wexford.
----------
Sports Direct International founder Mike Ashley was warned he will face "lengthy and public" contempt hearings if he continues to decline invitations to appear before a parliamentary committee. The Business, Innovation & Skills committee has been demanding since March for Ashley to appear before them in order to question him about working conditions at the sports clothing and equipment retailer's warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.
----------
COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
----------
Goals Soccer Centres said it has appointed Mark Vincent Jones as chief executive effective from July 1. Jones joins the five-a-side soccer centre operator from gambling company the Rank Group, where he was managing director of Grosvenor Casinos. The appointment comes after Goals co-founder and managing director Keith Rogers moved to the US to head up the group's operations after it expanded into that region. Rank Group made no announcement about Jones's move early Friday.
----------
Arbuthnot Banking Group said it is planning to sell a significant stake in Secure Trust Bank, a move which will kick off a series of changes for both companies. Arbuthnot said it is planning to sell 5.8 million Secure Trust shares at 2,500 pence per share, an 11% discount to the closing price of Secure Trust shares on Thursday. The move will raise GBP145.0 million for Arbuthnot and will mean its stake in Secure Trust would fall from 51.9% to around 20%. Secure Trust intends to move to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange following the sale of Arbuthnot's stake.
----------
COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
----------
Tech giants Microsoft and Facebook announced a joint project to install what they said would be the highest capacity subsea cable yet to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The 6,600-kilometre cable, which will stretch from northern Virginia in the US to Bilbao, Spain, will be managed by Spanish telecommunications firm Telxius. The cable, named Marea, Spanish for tide, will include eight fiber pairs. It is part of an effort to put in place the next generation of Internet infrastructure that has the capacity required to carry the amount of high-speed data demanded by consumers.
----------
Taiwanese electronics assembler Foxconn Technology Group has replaced 60,000 workers at a factory in China with robots, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. However, the company, which is a major supplier to Apple and Samsung, expects to maintain a significant workforce in China. Foxconn said it is applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, according to the newspaper.
----------
A federal jury found Google's use of Oracle's Java software in its mobile products didn't violate copyright law. Oracle said it will appeal to the US Supreme Court. Oracle argued that Google had infringed its copyright and had sought almost USD9 billion in damages. Oracle sued Google, a unit of Alphabet, in 2010 for using parts of Java without permission. A federal appeals court later ruled that Oracle could copyright the Java parts, but Google argued in a new trial this month that its use of Java was limited and covered by rules permitting "fair use" of copyrighted material.
----------
Friday's Scheduled Shareholder Meetings

Shire (re Baxalta)
Bodycote
Mincon Group
Flying Brands
Pires Investments
Acencia Debt Strategies
Escher Group
----------
By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.