Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are indicated to open lower Monday as Chinese trade data came in much worse than expected.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 15.5 points lower at 7,074.3. The index closed up 1.1% at 7,089.77 on Friday, a new record high close.
On Wall Street Friday, the DJIA closed up 0.6%, the S&P 500 ended up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.4%.
In Asia Monday, the Japanese Nikkei closed flat. The Hang Seng trades up 1.6% and the Shanghai Composite is up 1.9%, both near seven-year highs.
China had a merchandise trade surplus of USD3.10 billion in March, the Customs Office said. The reading was far below forecasts for a surplus of USD40.20 billion and down sharply from the USD62.62 billion surplus in February.
Exports plummeted 14.6% on year, well shy of forecasts for an increase of 10.0% following the 48.3% surge in the previous month. Imports tumbled an annual 12.3% versus forecasts for a decline of 10.0% following the 20.5% plunge a month earlier.
"These data misses raise concerns that not only is the Chinese economy failing to rebalance with demand remaining low, but also the global economy's demand for Chinese exports is also falling back raising concerns about the state of the global recovery as well," says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
Investors will be looking closely at Wednesday's Chinese GDP reading, which is likely to show that the economy grew 7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015. The fourth quarter of 2014 growth was 7.3%, the weakest since early 2009.
The Chinese government targets around 7% growth for 2015 after seeing a 7.4% expansion in 2014, which was the slowest since 1990.
Members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board believe that the country's moderate economic recovery will continue at its current pace, the minutes from the board's March 16 and 17 meeting revealed on Monday. In its long-standing war with deflation, the board said inflation expectations appear to be rising, although the members cautioned that the upside was being capped by tumbling energy prices.
EasyJet poached Halfords Group Chief Financial Officer Andrew Findlay to the same position at the low-cost airline, with the car-parts and bicycles retailer starting a search for a replacement.
Findlay will remain at Halfords until the end of October, having been CFO of the company since February 1, 2011. Prior to that he held finance roles at Marks & Spencer Group, the London Stock Exchange Group and Cable & Wireless Communications.
ICAP poached Hiscox Chief Financial Officer Stuart Bridges for the same role at the interdealer broker, with the specialist insurer also starting a search for his successor. Bridges has been at Hiscox for 16 years, but will leave at the end of August once the company reports its half-year results in late July.
It's a very quiet start to the week in the economic calendar with French current account data at 0745 BST, Italian industrial output at 0900 BST, and the US monthly budget statement after the close of London equity markets, at 1900 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
