FTSE 100 preview: US data to lift shares

By REUTERS
Updated:

 

The FTSE 100 is seen edging higher on Thursday following gains on Wall Street, after robust US employment numbers boosted confidence in the economic recovery .

Trading Screen

Shares: US jobs news has lifted markets.

The UK blue chip index looks set to climb 1-5 points, or as much as 0.1%, according to financial bookmakers, after it closed up 29.99 points, or 0.5%, at 6,043.86 on Wednesday.

Wall Street's early losses turned into gains on Wednesday after an ADP report showed a record 297,000 US private sector jobs were created in December, a figure which prompted analysts to raise their forecasts for the closely watched US non-farm payrolls data due out on Friday.

Estimates now centre on an increase of 175,000 jobs, up from 140,000 in an earlier Reuters survey.

In terms of domestic economic data, investors were waiting for December Markit/CIPS Services PMI.

On the other side of the Atlantic, US weekly jobless claims data is due.

Microsoft, the second-largest US technology company, plans to design a Windows operating system compatible with chips designed by ARM, an Intel rival and the dominant producer of chips for smartphones and tablet computers.

BP and its partners made a series of cost-cutting decisions that ultimately contributed to the oil spill that ravaged the Gulf of Mexico coast over the summer, the White House oil spill commission said.

Suppliers to Invensys face cost pressures after the engineer wrote to UK contractors to tell them they will have to wait up to twice as long to be paid, the Telegraph said.

A fire has caused Australia's Blakefield South coal mine in New South Wales state to shut down, owner Xstrata said.

There will be updates today from Hays, Cape, Clinton Cards, and Johnson Service Group.

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