London pre-open: Stocks seen higher on Wall St cues

London stocks were set for a firmer open on Monday following a positive close on Wall Street at the end of last week.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 38 points higher at 7,282.

London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler said: "European markets look set to start the new and event-packed week on a positive note. The move higher comes following a generally upbeat session in Asia overnight and a strong end to the previous week on Wall Street, which saw the Dow Jones rally 344 points, whilst the S&P rallied 1.6% and the Nasdaq jump 1.7%.

"Whilst this new week starts off slowly, with little in the way of high impacting economic data to catch investor’s eye; things certainly pick up as the week progresses, with US inflation data and the first testimony by the new US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell headlining."

As far as the pound is concerned, Lawler said Brexit makes a return to the forefront of traders’ minds this week.

"Last week’s Brexit negotiations resulted in fewer negative headlines than during previous stages of the talks. Meanwhile, the Brexit cabinet put on a rare showing of unity, apparently putting their difference behind them, at least for the time being. We will now wait to see what Theresa May has to offer in her much anticipated “road to Brexit” speech on Friday. "Continued hawkish BoE commentary, in addition to a preference of a Brexit, which keeps the UK closely aligned to the EU could see GBP/USD target $1.4020 in the near term before moving higher to $1.4060 before $1.4100."

On the data front, BBA mortgage approvals are at 0930 GMT. In the US, the Chicago Fed National activity index is at 1330 GMT, while new home sales are at 1500 GMT.

In corporate news, Associated British Foods reported a rare decline in sales at its Primark retail arm in the first half of the year but said its full year outlook was unaltered.

In a pre-close trading update ahead of its 3 March half-year results, the FTSE 100 group said adjusted operating profits were looking to be "in line" with the £652m produced a year ago, with earnings per share improving on that period thanks to lower net financial costs and a lower effective tax rate.

Vodafone Group announced that it will become Samsung's exclusive strategic telecoms partner in selected European markets, to develop and launch a range of consumer ‘internet of things’ (IoT) smart home product and services.

The FTSE 100 telecoms provider said the ‘V-Home by Vodafone’ suite was bringing together Samsung's ‘SmartThings’ open platform and the "V by Vodafone" consumer IoT system, launched in November. to offer consumers simple but powerful home automation, security and safety products and services.