London pre-open: Stocks to jump at start of day as euro slips

(ShareCast News) - Stocks are expected to jump at the opening bell, with all eyes still very much on the geopolitical and economic fall-out from the attacks against Paris over the weekend.The Footsie is seen starting the day up to 99 points up from Monday's close of 6,146.38. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls echoed on Tuesday morning remarks by his President on the previous day that the emphasis will now be on meeting the country's new security challenges and not on meeting Brussel's fiscal rules.In parallel, the euro/dollar was hitting new lows, off by 0.24% to 1.066 at last count.Consumer price data in the UK and US for the month of October are due out later in the day, with the former expected to show a small move higher and the latter the opposite.Barclays sees British consumer prices falling to a 0.2% year-on-year pace from 0.1% in the month before.While a further fall in CPI will spark hyperbolic headlines about a descent into pernicious deflation, Pantheon Macroeconomic's Sam Tombs said these should be ignored. "October's print will almost certainly represent the nadir and we think it will take only a year for CPI inflation to return to the MPC's 2% target.""The key concern of the BoE appears to be that core inflation is showing little sign of improving despite tighter labour market conditions but I don't think it would take too much for the concern to shift from few signs of inflationary pressures to fears that it will rise too rapidly once it starts, which appears to be the fear at the Fed," added Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.US stocks registered sharp gains on the first day of the week, partly thanks to dovish comments out of US Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren in remarks to the FT and positive data on Chinese capital outflows.The latest reading on the German ZEW institute's for the month of November is also eagerly awaited.Low cost carrier easyJet sees strong rise in profitabilityEasyJet posted an 18% rise in full year pre-tax profit as revenue and passenger numbers grew, as it expressed confidence over the long-term outlook for the business. For the twelve months to the end of September, pre-tax profit came in at £686m from £581m, on revenue of £4.69bn, up 3.5% from last year.British Land said its its net asset value was 7.5% ahead at 891p at the half-year stage with underlying pre-tax profits up 10.3% at £171m driven by successful leasing activity and lower financing costs. "Looking forward, we remain positive about occupational demand in our markets which is supported by UK economic performance. We are, of course, mindful of increased volatility in a number of capital markets which could adversely impact our investment markets," said chief executive Chris Grigg.Sales at Smiths Group declined 4% in the first quarter, as weakness in its oil and gas market was not quite made up by solid trading in detection and medical. The company's new chief executive Andy Reynolds Smith said expectations for the full year remained "broadly unchanged" and that he saw "clear potential" for operational improvements across the business.