Rio Tinto iron ore shipments rise in Q3, Segro hails strong quarter

London open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 18 points lower at 7,193.

Stocks to watch

Higher Chinese demand helped mining giant Rio Tinto report a 5% rise in third-quarter iron ore shipments.

The company maintained its full year iron ore shipment forecast of 320m to 330m tonnes.

Segro said a strong third quarter saw it sign contracts worth £15.3m of new headline rent, taking the total for the nine months to 30 September to £48.6m, though this was below the £52.0m worth of new agreements signed in the same period in 2018.

The British real estate investment trust remained confident in its prospects despite an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, with its rent roll from existing space having increased by £10.6m so far this calendar year.

Newspaper round-up

One of the year’s most-hyped share market floats, the $3.2bn Latitude Financial IPO, has failed after superannuation funds led by the nation’s biggest, Australian Super, decided not to purchase shares in the company. Latitude, a lender which is part-owned by private equity group KKR and helmed by controversial businessman Ahmed Fahour, decided to yank the offer late on Tuesday afternoon, robbing investment bankers working on the deal of a payday of up to $35m. – Guardian

Thomas Cook’s former bosses have attacked ministers for standing on the sidelines as it raced to secure lifeline funding - while other European countries scrambled to offer support. Appearing in front of MPs on Tuesday, chief executive Peter Fankhauser revealed ministers from Germany, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece had personally contacted him to offer support in the days before the world-renowned travel company collapsed. – Telegraph

Neil Woodford quit as manager of Woodford Patient Capital Trust last night as the curtain came down on his investment empire. The investment trust announced that his firm, Woodford Investment Management, had given notice to terminate its role as its portfolio manager, hours after he had been sacked as manager of his frozen Equity Income Fund. – The Times

US close

US stocks recorded some gains on Tuesday as earnings from some of America's major banks began to roll in.

At the close, the Dow Jones was up 0.89% at 27,024.80, while the S&P 500 was ahead 1.00% to 2,995.68 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.24% firmer at 8,148.71.