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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London on Wednesday are set to resume Tuesday's slide, with markets in the US posting steep declines overnight and trade in Asia mixed.In early company news, plastic products maker RPC finally reached an agreement to be taken over by Apollo Management, precious metals miner Fresnillo guided to slightly lower silver production in 2019 after a "challenging" year, while pub chain JD Wetherspoon expects interim profit to be lower than a year ago. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 26.49 points lower at 6,874.90 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 69.20 points, or 1.0%, at 6,901.39 on Tuesday."The four week rally in equities appears to have taken a breather, with a relative absence of solid news flow probably contributing to the profit-taking that we're seeing. We seem to be running on a lot of speculation at the moment, particularly where the US and China trade talks are concerned, which makes forming a judgement all the more difficult," said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.Stocks globally have struggled this week thus far amid concerns over the health of the world economy, fuelled by China reporting its slowest economic growth since the 1990s and the International Monetary Fund downgrading its global growth forecasts for 2019.In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 1.2%, the S&P 500 down 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite shedding 1.9%.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.1%.In early company news, fashion house Burberry backed its annual guidance as it reported marginal like-for-like revenue growth in its third quarter.Retail revenue fell 1% in the 13 weeks to December 29 to GBP711 million, while comparable store sales rose 1%."I am pleased with our progress in the quarter as we continued to build brand heat around our new creative vision and shift consumer perception of Burberry. Excitement is growing ahead of next month's launch of Riccardo's debut collection," said Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti, referring to Chief Creative Officer Riccardo Tisci.Vodafone Group said it has expanded its network sharing partnership with Telefonica's O2 to include 5G at joint radio network sites."This would enable both Vodafone and O2 to deploy 5G faster, to offer 5G services to more customers over a wider geographic area, and to do so at a lower cost," The FTSE 100-listed telecommunications firm explained. Chilean miner Antofagasta said it finished 2018 strongly, with copper production at the top end of guidance. Copper production in the fourth quarter was 220,000 tonnes, up 17% on a year ago, with production for 2018 as a whole 725,300 tonnes, at the upper end of guidance. The copper production for 2018 was up 3% on 2017, driven by higher output at Los Pelambres and Centinela.Mexican miner Fresnillo said it achieved record silver production and a robust gold performance in a "challenging year" for the firm. Silver production for 2018 totalled 61.8 million ounces, up 5.3% on last year due to the first full year of operations at San Julian. Gold output rose 1.3% year-on-year to 923,000 ounces.However, Chief Executive Octavio Alvidrez said the increased production "does not mask what was a challenging year for Fresnillo.""Despite the year on year increase in silver production resulting from a full year of operations at San Julian (Phase II), we are reporting lower silver production than anticipated. This was mainly explained by the lower than expected ore grades at the Fresnillo and Saucito mines which have persisted into the final quarter, together with operational issues," said Alvidrez.Looking ahead, the firm expects silver production in 2019 to be between 58 million and 61 million ounces, which would be slightly lower than that achieved in 2018, while gold output is expected to be flat year-on-year. Plastics products maker RPC Group said it has reached a takeover agreement worth GBP3.32 billion with Apollo Management.The two first announced they were in takeover talks back in September 2018, and since discussions began the pair have pushed back the 'put up or shut up' deadline multiple times.However, Apollo has now declared a final offer of 782 pence per RPC share, making a 16% premium to the FTSE 250-listed firm's share price on September 7, the last business day before the initial announcement of takeover talks was made. The price, including a recently declared interim dividend, also marks a 7.6% premium to RPC's closing price of 734p on Tuesday. The directors of RPC intend to recommend unanimously shareholders vote in favour of the scheme."In July I stated that differing investor views on the appropriate level of gearing was constraining the group's ability to pursue opportunities for growth and, as such, putting pressure on RPC's valuation. I also said that the board was working to resolve this situation. Today's announcement is the culmination of that process," said RPC Chair Jamie Pike."The board believes that the offer of GBP7.82 per share is a good outcome for shareholders and intends to recommend unanimously that they accept this offer," Pike added.The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the two firms were close to announcing a deal.Stationary and books retailer WH Smith said it has delivered a strong trading performance, boosted by its travel division.In the 20 weeks to January 19, total sales were up 6% while like-for-like sales were flat. Travel sales climbed 16%, with like-for-like sales 3% higher. High Street total sales were down 1%, as comparable sales fell 2%.The integration of InMotion, a US travel retailer of digital accessories, is progressing well, and continues to show the "strong sales momentum" exhibited prior to its takeover by WH Smith. Pub operator JD Wetherspoon backed its annual expectations but said profit is expected to be lower year-on-year in the first half as the firm feels the pinch from rising labour costs. In the 12 weeks to January 20, like-for-like sales were up 7.2% and total sales up 8.3%. In the year-to-date, or 25 weeks to January 20, like-for-like sales were up 6.3% and total sales 7.2% higher. "Sales growth has been strong since our last update. Costs, as previously indicated, are considerably higher than the previous year, especially labour, which has increased by about GBP30 million in the period, but also in other areas, including interest, utilities, repairs and depreciation," said Chair Tim Martin.Pretax profit for the first half is expected to be lower than the same period a year ago, but the pub chain's expectations for the full-year remain unchanged. In the economic calendar on Wednesday, the CBI industrial trends survey is at 1100 GMT and in the US the Redbook index is at 1355 GMT. Eurozone consumer confidence is at 1500 GMT.The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged on Wednesday, but downgraded the inflation forecast for this year primarily driven by a sharp fall in oil prices.The policy board of the BoJ voted 7-2 to purchase government bonds so that the yield of 10-year JGBs will remain at around 0%. The board maintained interest rate at -0.1% on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the bank.The central bank revised up real GDP growth outlook for this year to 0.9% from 0.8% and that for fiscal 2020 to 1.0% from 0.8%. At the same time, the BoJ downgraded its inflation forecast for this year to 1.1% from 1.6% and to 1.5% from 1.6% for fiscal 2020.The UK opposition party is "highly likely" to support a plan to delay the UK's exit from the EU if a Brexit deal is not achieved by the end of next month, the shadow chancellor has suggested.John McDonnell described the cross-party Bill - backed by Labour's Yvette Cooper and Tory Nick Boles - as "sensible" and said it was "increasingly likely" that his party would back it.Cooper's amendment is one of several tabled by MPs to Prime Minister Theresa May's deal, the rejection of which by an overwhelming 230 votes last week has thrown into doubt proposals for a backstop to keep the Irish border open.In a break from usual procedures, the amendments will be voted on by MPs on January 29 - Tuesday next week - in another day of high Brexit drama in the Commons which could put May under intense political pressure to change course.