SSP interim losses widen, IP Group performing well in year to date

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 24 points lower on Wednesday, having closed up 0.25% on Tuesday at 7,095.09.

Stocks to watch

Upper Crust owner SSP Group reported wider interim losses as Covid travel restrictions saw most of outlets closed, but said it had seen an improvement in trading in the UK and North America since the end of March. The company on Wednesday posted a pre-tax loss of £299.7m, compared with a £34m loss a year ago as the pandemic started to hit global travel. Revenue plunged 78.8% to £256.7m.

IP Group said on Wednesday that for the year so far, it has seen a continuation of the positive progress made by many of its portfolio companies during 2020. The company said it remained well-financed and, as at 31 May, had gross cash and deposits of £228.7m and net cash of £169.1m.

Newspaper round-up

Rishi Sunak is willing to accept a delay of up to four weeks to the final stage of England’s reopening roadmap, the Guardian understands, as the government considers extending restrictions beyond 21 June. Ministers will continue to scrutinise data on cases and hospitalisations over the coming days, with a final decision set to be announced by the prime minister on Monday. From 21 June nightclubs are due to reopen, with the cap on wedding numbers, large-scale events and indoor mixing lifted and guidance on working from home and mask-wearing dropped. - Guardian

Experts have warned that US tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, could pay less tax in the UK and several other big economies under global reforms agreed at the weekend by the G7. In a key stumbling block emerging days after the landmark deal, research from the TaxWatch campaign group indicates that the UK Treasury stands to lose about £230m from the taxes paid each year by four of the big US tech firms. - Guardian

Ministers have launched an urgent investigation after the Government's website was knocked offline alongside thousands of others by a malfunction at a little-known tech company. The Cabinet Office is racing to understand how a misfiring update at the Californian company Fastly was able to take down swathes of the Gov.uk domain alongside the likes of Spotify, Amazon and the BBC. - Telegraph

A British start-up working on quantum computing technology is to merge with part of an American industrial conglomerate in a deal that the companies say will create a “global powerhouse” in the promising field. Cambridge Quantum Computing, which was founded seven years ago by a former banker who once served as chairman of Accrington Stanley Football Club, will merge with the quantum computing business of Honeywell, a $160 billion company. - The Times

The pubs sector may have opened up as restrictions have eased, but publicans have yet to celebrate. Although confidence has improved, many retain a glass-half-empty outlook on their prospects. According to the Office for National Statistics, the percentage of pub and bar owners with “high confidence” in their premises surviving the next three months passed 20 per cent last month for the first time since November. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 seemed to be searching for direction ahead of key inflation data set to be released later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.09% at 34,599.82, while the S&P 500 was 0.02% firmer at 4,227.26 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.31% higher at 13,924.91.

The Dow opened 30.42 points lower on Tuesday, extending losses recorded in the previous session despite ongoing optimism regarding the US economy reopening in the summer.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 were both somewhat muted at the end of trading as market participants continued to look ahead to last month's consumer price index on Thursday following last week's jobs report, which revealed the US had added fewer jobs than originally expected in May but the unemployment rate had dropped to 5.8% from 6.1%.

In focus throughout the session were moves from Reddit traders, who turned their attention towards medicare provider Clover Health and fast-food chain Wendy's - up 85.82% and 25.85%, respectively.