LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Sink Amid Trade War, US Economy Jitters

LONDON (Alliance News) - With Monday's gains a distant memory, the FTSE 100 shed nearly 100 points at the London open Wednesday amid renewed global trade fears and worries over the strength of the US economy. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 93.30 points, or 1.3%, in early dealings to 6,929.46. The FTSE 250 was down 223.64 points, or 1.2%, at 18,106.00 and the AIM All-Share was 0.7% lower at 915.51.The Cboe UK 100 was down 1.4% at 11,758.55, while the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.2% at 16,188.96. The Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,383.79.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 1.3% and 1.2% respectively.The lower open comes after a slump in the US overnight, which stocks in Asia then followed. Michael van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, commented: "Uncertainty about the US-China trade truce and a flattening/inversion of the US treasury bond yield curve gave rise to more worries about the strength of the US economy, a harbinger of recession going all the way back to the second world war."In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended deep in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 3.1%, the S&P 500 3.2% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.8%.This risk-off sentiment flowed through to Asia on Wednesday, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 0.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong slumped 1.6%.Among few FTSE 100 gainers, Shire was up 2.0% after Takeda Pharmaceutical Co shareholders approved the acquisition of the Irish drugmaker. The acquisition remains subject to approval by Shire shareholders at a meeting expected to be held later Wednesday, and it is expected that completion of the acquisition will take place on January 8.Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown was down 5.1% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight.At the top of the FTSE 250 was Stagecoach, up 7.7% after transport operator said adjusted earnings for its half-year were ahead of expectations, due to its Virgin Rail operations and a resolution to its former South West Trains franchise, though the firm swung to a loss on a statutory basis.Revenue for the half-year to October 27 was GBP1.23 billion, down from GBP1.79 billion a year ago, as adjusted pretax profit fell to GBP87.0 million from GBP96.7 million. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 12.9p, down from 13.6p a year before.On a statutory basis, Stagecoach swung to a pretax loss of GBP22.6 million for the half from a GBP96.7 million profit last year.Operating profit for UK Rail was highlighted as being ahead of forecasts, despite profit for the unit falling 47% to GBP11.5 million from GBP21.7 million a year ago. The company said the fall reflected the expiry of the South West Trains franchise."The group is focused on making further progress in the second half of the year and we have increased our expectation of full-year adjusted earnings per share to reflect the above-forecast rail earnings in the first half of the year," said Chief Executive Martin Griffiths.Stagecoach kept its interim dividend unchanged at 3.8 pence per share.In the UK, Theresa May is battling to keep her Brexit agenda on track as MPs are again set to clash over the UK prime minister's EU withdrawal plan after inflicting major defeats on the government.As the Commons prepares for a second of five days of debate on May's controversial Brexit deal on Wednesday, a Tory former chief whip broke ranks and said he would vote against the proposals.Mark Harper, who backed Remain in the referendum, insisted the EU agreement would leave the UK worse off. Forecasting that May would lose the crunch Brexit vote next Tuesday by more than 80 votes, Harper urged the PM to renegotiate the deal.The comments came in the wake of a humiliating set of Commons defeats for May which saw the government forced to allow MPs to have a say in what happens next if the Brexit deal is voted down next week.Ministers also had to agree to publish the "final and full" legal advice to Cabinet on the withdrawal agreement as the government was found to be in contempt of Parliament for not already doing so.To come in the economic calendar on Wednesday, there are services PMIs from France, Germany, the eurozone and the UK at 0850 GMT, 0855 GMT, 0900 GMT and 0930 GMT respectively. There are also eurozone retail sales at 1000 GMT.Markets in the US will be closed on Wednesday in honour of former US President George HW Bush, whose funeral is taking place.After the London market close, the results from the latest index review are due. Among possible index changes, Royal Mail is facing demotion from the FTSE 100 to be replaced by insurer Hiscox. Aston Martin and Funding Circle are among the stocks up for membership in the FTSE 250, while Thomas Cook is set to drop out of the index after a tough week for the travel agent.