Sirius Minerals Share News (SXX)

(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 index's recent winning streak is seen coming to a halt on Wednesday following soft trade in New York and Asia overnight.In early UK company news, Nurofen painkiller maker Reckitt Benckiser appointed PepsiCo's chief commercial officer as its new chief executive, while over-50s travel operator and insurer Saga reported its own CEO's intention to retire. "All good runs must come to an end and while this one is hardly one for the history books, it was undoubtedly welcome given the worry that was spreading early last week," commented Craig Erlam at Oanda.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 32.95 points lower at 7,365.50 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 closed up 22.91 points, or 0.3% at 7,398.45 on Tuesday, leaving London's blue-chip index up 3.3% since the beginning of June."US equity markets gave up early gains to just about end in negative territory on Tuesday, weighing on Asian stocks overnight and European futures as we head into the open. It brought a decent run to an end, one that started suddenly as investors became more convinced that the Fed would cut interest rates sufficiently and ease slowdown fears," said Erlam.In New York on Tuesday, Wall Street ended flat to lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 0.1%, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closing marginally lower."A lot seems to hang on how many rate cuts we'll see from the Fed and to be honest, I think market expectations are too high so we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment," said Oanda's Erlam.Weak US jobs data at the end of last week fuelled anticipation of a rate cut this year, with the Labor Department reporting nonfarm payroll employment rose by 75,000 in May. This increase was significantly below market expectations.The figures followed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinting that the US central bank is open to an interest rate cut, as he pledged the Fed will take appropriate action to sustain US economic expansion. Powell's comments came after St Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested that an interest rate cut "may be warranted soon".In early UK company news, consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser said it has appointed the chief commercial officer of US soda and snacks maker PepsiCo as its new boss. Laxman Narasimhan will be appointed chief executive designate on July 16 and will formally take over Rakesh Kapoor's role at the beginning of September. As well as taking up the role of group CEO, Narasimhan will also "directly" lead the Health Business unit."Laxman's initial priorities will be to focus on delivering outperformance, especially in the Health business unit, and to drive RB2.0," said Reckitt Chair Chris Sinclair.In another significant executive change, Saga said Lance Batchelor will retire as CEO at the end of the current financial year. Saga's financial year ends in January 2020. The process to find Batchelor's replacement has started, the company added.Additionally, the company described early progress in its Insurance Broking arm as "encouraging", and said it will provide a more detailed update at its annual general meeting next week.Fertiliser firm Sirius Minerals said it has signed a take-or-pay supply agreement with Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative for the supply of POLY4 in India. Volumes will ramp up to one million tonnes per annum in year eight, with an option to increase this to around 1.3 million tonnes.Richmond Group said it had been investigating the sale of part of its 61.4% stake in guarantor loans firm Amigo Holdings via a secondary placement, but decided not to proceed with the disposal at this time. However, Richmond said it continues to "actively consider selling some shares" in Amigo. "Richmond envisages remaining a significant shareholder in Amigo for the long term, but Richmond's intention to diversify its portfolio remains," the firm said.AIM-listed online fashion retailer boohoo described first quarter trading as "strong", retaining its annual guidance as it saw robust sales growth across all divisions. Group revenue was up 39% year-on-year to GBP254.3 million, though the gross margin slipped to 55.0% from 55.2%. Within divisions, the eponymous boohoo brand saw sales up 27% to GBP123.5 million, while PrettyLittleThing's revenue wasn't far behind at GBP112.1 million, marking 42% growth on a year ago. Nasty Gal's revenue more than doubled to GBP18.2 million. "The group has made a strong start to the year as we continue to disrupt and capture market share in the UK and internationally across all our brands," said Chief Executive John Lyttle.For the year as a whole, boohoo expects to record revenue growth of around 25% to 30%, with an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of 10%.De La Rue said it has agreed to sell its International Identity Solutions business for GBP42 million in cash. HID Corp - part of ASSA ABLOY - will acquire De La Rue's international identity solutions contracts, associated software, passport assembly facilities in Malta and certain printing contracts of security documents. The agreement also includes De La Rue providing printing services to HID until March 2022. The UK passport contract is outside the scope of the agreement, De La Rue added."This transaction will allow the group to refocus on identity-related security features and components where the market opportunities are more accessible," De La Rue explained. For the financial year ended march 30, the unit generated sales of GBP37.8 million, contributing to De La Rue's total group sales of GBP564.8 million.Automotive retailer Pendragon warned on a challenging car market and "internal" challenges. The firm now expects to generate an underlying loss for the current financial year, with the first half to be "significantly loss making" before returning to profit in the remainder of the year. This is due to accelerated Car Store losses, an increase in used car stock at the end of the previous financial year, lower than anticipated new car margins, and increases in costs, particularly in aftersales. "Notwithstanding the challenging market and uncertain macro outlook, the expected loss for the year is still disappointing," said Chief Executive Mark Herbert. "That said, we see significant addressable opportunities to improve the business and return to profitable growth."In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 1.8% lower.Official data overnight showed China's consumer price inflation accelerated on increases in food prices in May, while factory gate inflation slowed on weak commodity demand.Consumer prices advanced 2.7% year-on-year in May, after gaining 2.5% in April. The rate was the fastest in more than a year and came in line with expectations. On the other hand, producer price inflation eased to 0.6% in May, as expected, from 0.9% in April. The decrease was largely due to the fall in manufactured industrial input prices.In the economic calendar, consumer prices from the US are due at 1330 BST.