London pre-open: Stocks set to rise ahead of US jobs data

London-listed stocks are expected to move higher this morning ahead of the release of the US non-farm payrolls report and unemployment rate.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 12 points higher than yesterday's close of 6,649.14.Analyst predict the Labor Department figures for March to show that employers added 200,000 more jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 6.6% from 6.7%.According to Samual Fox from Spreadex, global markets are expected to be "quite twitchy" ahead of the data. "With the weather dramatically improving in America, the [anticipated growth] could see US markets reach new record highs, however trading over the release of the figure is not for the faint hearted." On Monday, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US jobs market remained weak and extraordinary policy was "still needed and will be for some time to come".She noted that there were 7m people working part-time that would like a full-time job, companies were not hiring enough and wage growth was weak.Other economic data releases scheduled for today include German factory orders and Markit's construction purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the German construction industry. Markit will also put out retail PMI for Germany and the Eurozone. Danske Bank Markets said of Germany factory orders that, "the new orders component of manufacturing PMI has declined in the past two months and it could reflect weaker factory orders". "We forecast a slight decline after it increased by 1.0% month on month in January." In this morning's company news, easyJet said the number of passengers in March rose by 4.8% to 5,107,676 compared to a year earlier. The load factor, the number of passengers to the number of seats available, increased to 91.5% from 90.5% the same month in 2013. Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed media speculation by appointing a long-running Credit Suisse banker Ewen Stevenson as its new Chief Finance Officer (CFO), following the resignation of Nathan Bostock in December.Workspace Group has sold the residential part of the second phase of its mixed use development at Bow Enterprise Park in east London for which it is will receive £11m cash in May 2015. The phase consists of 160 apartments and 3,000 square foot of commercial space. The company is planning to market the third and final phase in due course. Engineering and construction group Kentz Corporation has revealed that its CFO Ed Power is to step down on reaching retirement age this May. Power, who was appointed to the board in 2008 having worked with the company since 1990, will not stand for re-election at the next annual general meeting on May 16th and will retire as Executive Director.NR