London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on downbeat US cues; GDP eyed

London stocks were set for a negative open on Friday following more heavy losses on Wall Street overnight after the Fed's disappointing policy announcement earlier in the week.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 21 points lower at 6,690, with worries about Sino-US relations also expected to weigh on sentiment after the US Justice Department filed charges overnight accusing two members of a Chinese cyber-espionage group of hacking into dozens of US tech and industry giants.

It has been alleged that the two individuals were operating in conjunction with the Chinese government, although this has been denied by Beijing.

"The move is likely to put a strain on US-China relations," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden.

On the macro calendar, total third-quarter gross domestic product is at 0930 GMT.

Things were pretty quiet on the corporate front as we head towards the Christmas break.

Plastic packaging specialist RPC Group has again pushed back the deadline for private equity firm Apollo Global Management to make a takeover offer.

Apollo had been due to announce a firm intention to make an offer for the company on Friday, but RPC said that the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers had extended the deadline to 18 January in order for discussions to continue.

Anglo American said it had restarted operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil after the discovery of two leaks in a slurry pipeline earlier in the year led to a shutdown.

The company said it expected the operation to ramp up to 1.2m tonnes (wet basis) per month and to produce approximately 16m-19m tonnes (wet basis) of iron ore in 2019. Minas-Rio is expected to report an underlying EBITDA loss of $320m for 2018, compared to guidance of a loss of $300m-$400m.