Future sees FY earnings 'materially' ahead, Redrow profits rise 7%
London open
The FTSE 100 was called to open 31 points higher at 7,342.
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Specialist media publisher Future said it expected full year core earnings to be “materially ahead” of expectations driven by trading in the US and forex benefits in the final quarter.
Redrow reported a 7% jump in annual profit before tax to £406m as a double-digit increase in legal completions sent revenue to a record high of £2.1bn.
Though the housebuilder remained cautious about a post-Brexit future and the eventual impact of impending changes to the Help to Buy scheme, Redrow's executive chairman said trading since the year-end had been encouraging and reservations for new homes were ahead of last year.
Newspaper round-up
Britain risks turning the clock back to the working conditions of the Victorian age unless unions have greater powers to organise and negotiate, the head of the TUC has said. Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said that without a shift in the balance of power from employers to unions the UK would face rising inequality and insecurity at work. – Guardian
Two British investment bankers have gone on trial in Bonn in what German media have called “the biggest financial fraud trial” in the country’s postwar history. The two British citizens, Martin Shields, 41, and Nicholas Diable, 38, are accused of having defrauded the German state of €447.5m (£405m) from London’s banking district with so-called cum-ex trading schemes, a complex shell game of share transactions. – Guardian
Britain’s constitutional crisis has hit before the next great spasm of Europe’s intractable monetary crisis. But they are in close competition. The eurozone faces a category five economic storm. It is structurally defenceless as the world slides into recession. This will not be an ordinary downturn because central banks no longer have the instruments to fight it. – Telegraph
A leading member of the family that founded Cobham has stepped up her attempts to block the £4 billion sale of the defence and aerospace company by contacting leading shareholders. Lady Cobham, daughter-in-law of the founder Sir Alan Cobham, has reportedly written to the 15 largest investors in Cobham in a bid to derail a takeover by the US private equity firm Advent International, which is to be put to a shareholder vote later this month. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Wednesday after a report revealed that China's services sector expanded at its fastest pace in three months in August and a controversial bill that led to recent tensions in Hong Kong was withdrawn.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.91% at 26,355.47, while the S&P 500 was trading 1.08% higher at 2,937.78 and the Nasdaq Composite closed out the session 1.30% firmer at 7,976.88.