London pre-open: Lower start predicted for FTSE

The City is expected to slide lower early on following yesterday's rise as investors gear up for another busy day of corporate earnings and economic data, both from home and abroad. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around 24 points below yesterday's close of 6,769.91.This was despite a positive finish to Tuesday's US session, driven by strong earnings and reports of easing tensions in Eastern Europe. Both financial and tech stocks rose strongly in the States, although Twitter was a notable faller after hours, having posted a first-quarter loss of $132.36m, significantly wider than the $27.03m loss posted for the said period a year earlier, while user growth slowed. In post-market trading, the stock dropped to its lowest level since it was floated. Back in the UK, today's session will be keeping an eye out for the statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The FOMC begun the two-day policy meeting yesterday and is widely expected to continue tapering its asset purchase programme by $10bn each meeting. This will bring the monthly stock of bond buying down from $55bn to $45bn.Analysts at Rabobank have said it is a case of "steady as she goes" at the central bank "given the Fed's tapering inertia and the apparent confirmation by recent data that the extreme winter weather was indeed responsible for much of the weakness in earlier data".Eurostat is also due to release its preliminary estimate on Eurozone consumer prices for the month of April. Before today's German CPI numbers, expectations were for an increase of 0.8% year-on-year, if not 0.9%. In this morning's UK-listed company news, Chile-focused copper miner Antofagasta said production of copper, gold and molybdenum beat company expectations for the quarter, with higher grades at its Esperanza mine, and revealed it is on track to meet full-year targets of 700,000 tonnes of copper, 270,000 ounces of gold and 7,500 tonnes of molybdenum at a net cash cost of $1.45 per pound.Power systems group Rolls-Royce has confirmed media speculation that it is in talks with German engineer Siemens about the possible sale of its energy gas turbine and compressor division. The unit supplies aero-derivative gas turbines, compressor systems and related services to customers in the oil and gas and power generation sectors. According to press reports, the business could fetch a value of up to £1bn.First quarter earnings were down 3% at Royal Dutch Shell, if excluding large impairments on refineries in Asia and Europe that reflect "substantial" pressures on its downstream business.Office outsourcing services provider Regus said its first-quarter performance had been in line with its expectations, with revenue up 19.4% to £393.2m from £357.0m a year earlier at constant currency - although the rise was just 10.1% at actual rates. Its Mature business continued to drive the company, with the group's current primary focus to deliver further improvements to the division's operating profit and cash flow. NR