London pre-open: Stocks set for muted open despite US-Iran peace hopes

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for a muted open on Friday despite growing hopes of a peace deal between the US and Iran.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around five points higher. At 0730 BST, Brent crude was down 1% at $92.74 a barrel.

Sentiment got a boost late on Thursday following a report by Axios that the US and Iran have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme.

Citing two US officials and a regional source involved in the mediation efforts, Axios said Trump has yet to give his final approval, while Iran has also not confirmed its acceptance.

A US official told Axios: "This is an agreement to get everybody to the table. We will work out the details in the negotiations."

It was understood that terms of the deal were mostly agreed to as of Tuesday, but both sides still needed approval from senior leadership. Axios said the US officials claimed the Iranians later came back and said they had the necessary approvals and were prepared to sign. Iran has not confirmed that.

In corporate news, Ocado said it has agreed to enter a partnership with Asda to develop the latter's online business across the UK with the Ocado Smart Platform.

No financial details were disclosed but Ocado said the focus of the partnership will be to quickly replace and upgrade Asda's existing ecommerce infrastructure, with Ocado's solutions to be rolled out across both stores and dark stores from 2027.

Ocado and Asda plan to deploy Ocado's end-to-end solutions across Asda ecommerce operations. These include Ocado's front-end (webshop), In-Store Fulfilment, and software to support last mile planning and route efficiency.

Ocado said the transaction is not expected to have a material financial impact in FY26.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca said that Imfinzi has been approved in the US as part of the first immunotherapy‑based combination for patients with high‑risk, non‑muscle‑invasive bladder cancer who have not previously been treated with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin.

AstraZeneca said the Food and Drug Administration's decision was based on results from its Phase III POTOMAC trial, which showed that adding a year of Imfinzi to standard BCG therapy cut the risk of high‑risk disease returning, progressing or leading to death by 32% after one year compared with BCG alone.