What you need to know before the open
The rebound seen in European markets yesterday is expected to continue today, as investors set aside worries over the Ukraine-Russia situation, focusing on some pretty reasonable data from Germany and the US.
The upbeat data buoyed Asian shares, which hit two week highs in Wednesday trading.
Two further developments yesterday helped give markets a boost. One, expectation grew regarding extra stimuli from Chinese authorities to combat the country’s slowing growth. Two, a softer position was seen from Jens Weidmann, the president of Germany’s Bundesbank, who said a quantitative easing programme for the European Central Bank is “not out of the question”.
This morning, the GfK German confidence survey has come in bang in line with expectations at 8.5 for April – the same as it was for March.
Corporate data
Energy firm SSE’s announced it’s freezing domestic energy prices at their current levels until 2016. It’s also splitting its retail and wholesale businesses.
Bellway Homes has reported home sales up 25 per cent in its first half, with orders rising 63 per cent.
Standard Life’s sealed a deal to buy Ignis Asset Management for £390m.
Lloyd’s of London saw pre-tax profits rise 14 per cent to £3.2bn last year.
Tui Travel’s said that, despite strong online bookings (up eight per cent), summer bookings are flat.
And Lloyds Banking Group shares are being sold by the government, priced at 75.5p each. The 7.5 per cent stake sale will raise £4.2bn for the Treasury.
Data in focus
- 12.30pm: US Feb durable goods orders