(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are expected to open broadly unchanged on Friday, despite health concerns hurting market confidence, as investors look toward US-China trade developments.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 4.57 points higher at 7,456.60. The UK index closed down 82.34 points, or 1.1%, at 7,452.03 on Thursday.
"European equity markets largely lost ground yesterday as the coronavirus fears were reignited," said CMC Markets UK Analyst David Madden.
The death toll from China's virus epidemic neared 1,400 on Friday, as the US complained of a "lack of transparency" from Beijing over its handling of a crisis that has fuelled global panic.
Nearly 64,000 people are now recorded as having been made ill by the virus in China, with the last two days showing a steep rise after a change in diagnostic methods.
The National Health Commission disclosed a statistical error, however, saying it removed 108 deaths in Hubei that had been double-counted, but the nationwide toll still rose to 1,380 on Friday.
The deepening crisis in China has caused fears of more global contagion, with Vietnam locking down villages after finding new cases and Japan becoming the third place outside the mainland on Thursday to report a death.
More than two-dozen countries have now reported hundreds of cases among them.
"The coronavirus crisis rumbles on but in the Asian session dealers were concentrated on trade. Dealers are waiting for Beijing to lower levies on USD75 billion worth of US imports – a pledge they made last week," said Madden.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.6%, but the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.1%.
In the US on Friday, Wall Street closed lower after reaching intraday records earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.4%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices ended 0.2% and 0.1% lower, respectively.
US consumer prices rose at their fastest annual rate in over a year, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Thursday.
The consumer price index was up 0.1% in January month-on-month, slower than December's 0.2% rise. Consensus, according to FXStreet, had pencilled in steady 0.2% growth in January.
Year-on-year, though, prices were up 2.5%, faster than the 2.3% inflation rate recorded for December and ahead of forecasts for a 2.4% rise. January's reading marked the highest annual inflation rate since the 2.5% reading registered in October 2018.
Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.03 early Friday in London, up from JPY109.80 late Thursday.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3097 early Friday, soft from USD1.3045 at the London equities close Thursday. The euro was quoted at USD1.1021 early Friday, flat from USD1.0850 late Thursday.
Gold was quoted at USD1.573.78 an ounce early Friday, lower than USD1,574.60 late Thursday.
Brent oil quoted at USD59.14 a barrel early Friday, up from USD56.30 late Thursday.
The economic events calendar on Friday has GDP readings from Germany and the eurozone at 0700 GMT and 1000 GMT respectively. In the afternoon, there are US retail sales figures at 1330 GMT.
The UK corporate calendar on Friday has annual results from warehouse property investor SEGRO, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and from state-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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