LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: Next Ups Profit Guidance As Sun Heats Up Sales

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are called for a flat start on Tuesday, with US-China trade worries continuing to weigh on markets.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 0.69 of a point higher at 7,459.10 on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.4%, or 31.82 points, at 7,458.41 on Monday.On Monday, US tariffs on Chinese imports worth USD200 billion came into effect, with China hitting back with duties of USD60 billion on goods from the world's largest economy.China's Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen on Tuesday said China can't hold trade talks if the US holds a "knife to its throat", adding that the US has made further negotiations "impossible".The US, meanwhile, has claimed China is engaged in unfair policies and practices relating to US technology and intellectual property."Caution shouldn't be too surprising given that President Trump has already indicated that if China were to retaliate, which they have, to extend the tariff burden on to the remaining USD267 billion of Chinese imports. That he hasn't done so yet doesn't mean he won't, and investors appear to have taken this as a cue to scale back some risk," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.Brent crude could be a boon for London-listed oil majors on Tuesday as the price continued to climb from its fresh four-year highs overnight. A barrel of Brent oil rose to be quoted at USD81.67 in early trade on Tuesday, its loftiest price since November 2014. This is up from USD81.37 late Monday and just USD78.66 late Friday. Over the weekend, OPEC decided against measures to reduce oil prices, rejecting demands from Trump that the cartel lower its energy costs. "I do not influence prices," Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday, days after Trump called on the OPEC countries to lower prices."Russia and Saudi Arabia essentially ignoring Trump's pleas, combined with US sanctions hitting Iran's oil exports in early November means we expect fresh multi-year highs for oil, which will also help the oil majors such as BP and Shell to gain ground in the near term," said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group.In UK company news, Next raised its annual guidance as a feared pullback in sales following a strong start to summer trading failed to materialise as its first-half progressed.Revenue for the half year to July 28 rose to GBP1.96 billion from GBP1.90 billion, lifting pretax profit to GBP311.1 million from GBP309.4 million.Full price sales over the period were up 4.5% on last year, ahead of the 1.0% guidance for the full-year issued in January and 2.2% given in May. Next now expects to achieve 3.0% year-on-year growth in annual full price sales"When we issued our August trading statement we believed that there was a high risk that the sales gained in July would be offset by losses in August. As it turned out, we did not experience any material loss of sales in August or early September, so we are now raising our central guidance," said Next.The clothing and homewares retailer upped its pretax profit forecast by GBP10 million to GBP727 million, bringing the figure to sit just above last year's GBP726.1 million.The company added that its "over-performance" in the half-year was buoyed by unusually warm weather, and said it remains cautious in its outlook for the remainder of the year."The picture in the first half of this year is a little distorted by the under-performance of our ranges last year, and our second half guidance may provide a better indication of overall trends. Nonetheless, it appears that the rate of decline in our Retail business is not getting any worse, whilst the improvement of our Online business is strengthening," commented the retailer.Next declared an ordinary dividend of 55p per share, up 3.8% on last year.Imperial Brands said its business is performing well, and it remains on track to deliver its guided constant currency revenue and earnings growth for the year.The tobacco business is delivering a "much stronger" second half, with volumes for the year expected to outperform the industry albeit with second half volumes "slightly weaker" than the first."This will be more than offset by significantly stronger tobacco price/mix in the second half, which together with increased NGP revenue, will result in revenue growth in line with our guidance range," said Imperial.The firm also announced plans ahead its capital markets day on Tuesday to launch Pulze, a heated tobacco product, in early 2019.In other tobacco company news, British American Tobacco said Chief Operating Officer Jack Bowles will succeed Nicandro Durante as chief executive.Last week, BAT said Durante - who has been with BAT for nearly 37 years - will retire on April 1, 2019. Bowles will become chief executive designate at the start of November, before joining the board on January 1.SSE said, following its profit warning earlier in September, it continues to expect its current financial year to be one of "transition" for the group. The energy provider earlier in the month said interim profit will halve year-on-year due to hot, still weather and high gas prices."We will work very hard in the coming months to deliver the best possible results in the circumstances for 2018/19 while making good progress towards the evolved business model for SSE set out in May 2018," said Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies.Separately, SSE said it has bought Fluor's 50% share in Seagreen Wind Energy, established to develop offshore wind projects in the Firth of Forth Zone. SSE already holds 50% of the joint venture and will take full control buy purchasing Fluor's share for a single payment of GBP118 million. Card Factory said it managed to increase interim sales despite a "challenging" trading backdrop as it unveiled a 5.0p special dividend.The special payout was in addition to a 2.9p ordinary dividend.Revenue for the half to July 31 grew 3.2% to GBP185.3 million with like-for-like sales declining 0.2%. Reported pretax profit rose 17% to GBP27.2 million, though was down 14% on an underlying basis to GBP22.7 million.The cards retailer said it continues to expect underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation between GBP89 million to GBP91 million for the full year."We continue to experience a weak consumer environment and we don't foresee this changing in the short term, however we have a solid business plan centered on refreshed ranges and a strong value proposition for the Christmas season," said Card Factory.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended mostly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased off last week's record highs to close down 0.7%. The S&P 500 ended down 0.4% but Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.6%, while financial markets in Hong Kong are closed on the day after the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.Minutes from the Bank of Japan's latest meeting showed rate-setters think the country's economic expansion is continuing at an acceptable pace.At the meeting, the central bank retained its massive monetary stimulus as expected, including the -0.1% interest rate on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the bank."The staff explained that one option would be to indicate that the Bank intended to maintain the current extremely low levels of short- and long-term interest rates for an extended period of time, taking into account uncertainties regarding economic activity and prices," the minutes said.Meanwhile, producer prices in Japan were up 1.3% on year in August, the BoJ said. This exceeded expectations for an increase of 1.1%, which would have been unchanged from the July reading.The international economic events calendar on Tuesday has US house price index readings at 1400 BST. In addition, the latest two-day Federal Open Market Committee begins with an interest rate decision due on Wednesday.