LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: AstraZeneca Sells Cancer Drug Rights

(Alliance News) - Stocks are set for a lower open in London on Friday, despite positive US-China trade noises, as investors look for new direction.

IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 15.7 points lower at 7,562.12. The blue chip index closed up 33.07 points, or 0.4%, at 7,573.82 on Thursday.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he had no doubt Washington and Beijing will sign a new partial trade agreement next month, marking a truce after nearly two years of conflict.

"I'm very confident," Mnuchin told CNBC.

"It's just going through what I would consider to be a technical legal scrub and we'll be releasing the document and signing it in the beginning of January," he said in an interview on the White House lawn.

"Comments from Steve Mnuchin point towards the US-China deal being signed in early-January, ensuring we should have a key driver of market gains play out throughout the festive period," said Joshua Mahony at IG.

In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended in the green, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 0.5% higher, the S&P 500 also 0.5% higher, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.7%.

US lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a new continental trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, a victory for President Donald Trump after the same chamber's vote for impeachment. The impeachment vote has been largely ignored by markets, with the Republican-controlled Senate highly unlikely to remove Trump from office.

A law to implement the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority – an unusual occurrence in the current political atmosphere – with a vote tally of 385-41.

In the UK, Andrew Bailey, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority, is set to be announced as the next governor of the Bank of England, it has been reported.

The Financial Times said the selection of Bailey, former deputy governor of the Bank, could be announced by Chancellor Sajid Javid as early as Friday.

The next governor is due to start in early February, after incumbent Mark Carney steps down on January 31. Carney took up the post in July 2013 and extended his tenure twice.

He said in 2016 he would stay for an extra year after his tenure ended – until June 2018 – but was then persuaded by then-chancellor Philip Hammond to extend his term by another seven months to help ease disruption from Brexit at a critical time.

In London, FTSE 100 pharma giant AstraZeneca announced the USD181 million sale of the rights to Arimidex and Casodex in Europe, Africa and certain other countries.

The drugs, which are mainly used to treat breast and prostate cancer, have been sold to Juvise Pharmaceuticals. AstraZeneca sold the rights to the drugs in the US in 2017.

In the midcap FTSE 250 index, Greencoat UK Wind has bought two Scottish wind farms, Windy Rig and Twentyshilling, for a combined GBP104 million.

LondonMetric Property has disposed of two mega box warehouses and two regional distribution centres for a combined GBP145.3 million, adding the price is a 2.6% discount to book value as of September 30.

The UK's largest listed landlord Grainger has secured planning to redevelop a housing estate in Lambeth, London, which will see it deliver 215 new homes. Originally, it had planned to build 69 new homes at the site near Waterloo station.

Elsewhere, the UK Competition & Markets Authority has said it is minded to accept remedies to competition concerns put forward by Stonegate, which is trying to buy pub company Ei Group for GBP1.3 billion.

Waste-to-product business Renewi said it is "delighted" with a Dutch government decision to lift a ban on thermally treated soil, following a period of testing.

Renewi said its ATM facility in the country has a "strong" pipeline of customers who plan to use thermally treated soil at their locations.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2% Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite finished down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is marginally higher in late trade.

Japan's consumer prices were up 0.5% from a year earlier in November, the government said on Friday. In October, prices were up 0.2% year-on-year.

The latest figure remained far off the 2% inflation goal set by the Bank of Japan more than six years ago when it launched a monetary easing campaign.

The inflation rate for the year of 2018 rose 0.9% from the previous year as higher energy prices had supported the rises.

The economic calendar Friday has final third-quarter GDP readings from the UK and US at 0930 GMT and 1330 GMT respectively.

In addition, there are US personal consumption expenditure figures due at 1330 GMT - the core reading is the US Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation.

By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com

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