James Fisher wins £30m contract with Korea's Daewoo, GSK and Pfizer to combine consumer health businesses

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open two points lower on Wednesday, having closed down 1.06% at 6,701.59 on Tuesday.

Stocks to watch

James Fisher and Sons said its subsidiary JFD had won a £30m contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to design, build and deliver a deep search and rescue vehicle for the Korean navy, together with training and in-service support. The vehicle will be delivered in 2021.

GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have struck a deal to combine their consumer health businesses into a joint venture generating £10bn of annual sales. GSK, which will have controlling stake of 68%, said the combination of the two businesses is expected to generate annual cost savings of £0.5bn by 2022 at a cash cost of £0.9bn and non-cash costs of £0.3bn.

Online gambling firm 888 said it expected full year adjusted EBITDA would be in-line with expectations as the second half delivered further progress against the group's strategic objectives. 888 said it had continued its momentum in Sport, Casino and across regulated European markets.

Newspaper round-up

Theresa May is to start culling Tory manifesto commitments after her cabinet decided yesterday to accelerate planning for a no-deal Brexit. David Lidington, who is in effect the prime minister’s deputy, will start in “short order” to identify policies to be shelved to free resources for the no-deal, a senior figure said. - The Times

Britain’s 'big five' business bodies have united to call on politicians to prevent Britain crashing out of the European Union without a trade deal next spring. They say UK business is “watching in horror” as political factions fight each other rather than work out what practical steps can be taken to limit the chaos they fear a disorderly exit from the trading bloc would cause. - Telegraph

Donald Trump has stepped up his pressure on America’s central bank to shelve plans for an expected increase in interest rates to prevent the bleakest December for Wall Street since the US was in the throes of the Great Depression. - Guardian

Facebook gave 150 companies access to hundreds of millions of users' data without their knowledge or consent. Records obtained by the New York Times reveal that the amount of data Cambridge Analytica received from a Facebook app paled in comparison to the access that was granted to the social media giant's biggest partners, including Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix. - Daily Mail

US close

Wall Street finished with some small wins on Tuesday, after a session of heavy losses the day before, as investors exercised caution ahead of Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy announcement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35% to 23,675.64, the S&P 500 eked out gains of 0.01% to 2,546.16, and the Nasdaq 100 closed 0.67% higher at 6,491.52.

Before the opening bell, there was concern for another red-tinted day after Asian stocks slumped following a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which failed to boost sentiment.

In an address to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China's economic reforms, Xi called for China to "stay the course" on its current path of reform and said "no one is in a position to dictate to the Chinese people what should or should not be done".

However, market participants were left disappointed after Xi failed to mention any new reforms or stimulus.