BHP cuts iron ore forecasts, DS Smith sells two businesses to rival International Paper
London open
The FTSE 100 was being called to start the session seven points lower to 7,463.
Stocks to watch
Property developer Segro told shareholders on Wednesday that the business "continued to perform well" during the first quarter, with the company securing £21m of new headline rent. Management further said it had 44 projects under construction, which were expected to generate £57m of annualised rent and were aleady 72% leased, versus the record 73% of pre-letting reached in fiscal year 2018. The developer's vacancy rent meanwhile decreased from 5.2% as of year-end 2018 to 4.4%.
BHP cut iron ore output forecasts, reflecting the impact of tropical cyclone Veronica in Western Australia, which also hit production at sector peer Rio Tinto.
The world's biggest miner cut its forecast to 265m - 270m tonnes, from 273m – 283m tonnes. Iron ore output for the three months to end-March fell 5% to 64m tonnes.
Full-year production costs were increased to less than $15 a tonne, from previous guidance of less than $14 a tonne, due to lower volumes and increased remediation costs.
DS Smith said it had reached agreement for the proposed sale of two packaging businesses in North Western France and Portugal to International Paper €63m (£54m).
The sales would fulfil the commitment made to the European Commission in relation to the clearance of Smith's acquisition of Papeles y Cartones de Europa, S.A., known as Europac, which completed on 22 January 2019.
Newspaper round-up
The global financial system faces an existential threat from climate change and must take urgent steps to reform, the governors of the Bank of England and France’s central bank have warned, writing in the Guardian. In an article published in the Guardian on Wednesday aimed at the international financial community, Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, and Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Banque de France, said financial regulators, banks and insurers around the world had to “raise the bar” to avoid catastrophe. - Guardian
Asda has been accused of planning to cut the pay of 3,000 supermarket staff, under proposed changes to employee contracts that will end paid breaks. The supermarket confirmed last week that consultations were taking place to simplify terms for hourly paid workers and increase the basic rate of pay to £9 per hour. Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, has claimed in a letter to Asda’s chief executive, Roger Burnley, that staff involved in the process were likely to be up to £500 worse off a year.- Guardian
Intel has announced that it is winding down a multi-billion-dollar, multi-decade effort to win a foothold in the mobile phone industry. The mammoth chipmaker, whose products dominate many other kinds of computing but which has struggled to compete in mobile hardware, said it would meet current orders but cancel its planned new products. - Telegraph
US close
Wall Street finished its session in the green on Tuesday, as investors thumbed over more key earnings, including those from banking giant Bank of America.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.26% to 26,452.66 at the close, while the S&P 500 added 0.05% to 2,907.06 and the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.34% to 7,654.73.
On the macroeconomic calendar, US manufacturing output remained flat last month after two consecutive months of declines, leading to the biggest quarterly decrease since 2017.