(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were set to open up slightly higher on Monday, as talks over raising the US debt ceiling continue.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open up 7.2 points, 0.1%, at 7,764.07 on Monday. On Friday, the FTSE 100 index closed up 14.57 points, 0.2%, at 7,756.87. It is up 2.7% so far in 2023.
New York ended lower on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.3%, S&P 500 down 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite down 0.2%.
US President Joe Biden will meet with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday for another round of talks on raising the US debt ceiling less than two weeks before a key deadline to avoid a disastrous default, officials said.
Anxiety was mounting in Washington Sunday ahead of the June 1 deadline, set by the US Treasury, for Congress to authorize more borrowing, as the two sides appeared nowhere near a compromise.
Speaking at a press conference before leaving to return to Washington from the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Biden said Republicans' latest demands for spending cuts as a condition for raising the US government borrowing authority were "frankly unacceptable".
June 1 remains a "hard deadline" for raising the US debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday, warning that unless the stand-off with Republicans in Congress is resolved, the government would be unable to pay its bills through the middle of next month.
In the UK, house prices hit a new record high in May, as the housing market continued to defy pessimistic forecasts at the start of the year, figures showed on Monday.
Rightmove's house price index showed the average price of property coming to market jumped by 1.8%, GBP6,647, to set a new peak of GBP372,894 as sellers responded with increased pricing confidence. The 1.8% monthly increase is the biggest of the year so far, and significantly higher than the historic average rise in the month of May of 1.0%, Rightmove said.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2447 early Monday, lower than USD1.2463 at the London equities close on Friday.
The euro traded at USD1.0814 early Monday, flat on USD1.0812 late Friday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY137.90, up versus JPY137.64.
In Asia on Monday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.2%.
Gold was quoted at USD1,973.12 an ounce early Monday, higher than USD1,972.99 on Friday. Brent oil was trading at USD74.92 a barrel early Monday, lower than USD75.74 late Friday.
Monday's economic calendar has a eurozone flash consumer confidence reading at 1500 BST. The week picks up pace with a host of flash purchasing managers' index readings on Tuesday, a UK inflation reading on Wednesday, and US gross domestic product on Thursday.
The local corporate calendar has annual results from digital services provider Kainos and logistics firm Wincanton on Monday.
Already out, Ryanair swung to a pretax profit of EUR1.44 billion in its recent financial year from a EUR429.8 million loss, as revenue doubled to EUR10.78 billion from EUR4.80 billion. It said it is "cautiously optimistic" of a modest increase in profit in financial 2024.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter
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