Passenger numbers fly higher at easyJet, WH Smith books solid third quarter
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 16 points higher on Wednesday morning, having closed down 0.7% at 7,686.80 on Tuesday.
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Budget airline easyJet said May passenger numbers rose 3.7% year-on-year to 7.5m. Load factor, a measure of capacity utilisation, increased by 1.8 percentage points to 93.3%. That took the rolling 12-month passenger figure to around 83.09m, an increase of 8.4% over the year to May 2017. There were 974 cancellations in May 2018 - equivalent to 2.5% of planned capacity and up on the 117 experienced in May 2017. Around 600 were due to French and Italian industrial action with a further 300 arising from adverse weather conditions and ATC restrictions, easyJet said.
WH Smith enjoyed stronger trading in the third quarter of its trading year, it said on Wednesday, with the retailer confident its mix of high street, railway stations and airport locations will allow it to contend with the current economic uncertainty affecting many rivals. In the 13 week period to 2 June, the group grew sales 4% with like-for-like sales up 1% compared to last year, which were both an improvement on the flat total sales and 1% decline in the first six months before.
Workspace Group issued its full-year results for the year ended 31 March on Wednesday, reporting profit before tax of £170.4m - up from £88.8m - with “significant increases” seen in both trading profit and property valuation. The FTSE 250 firm said it saw strong growth in net rental income of 21% to £95.6m, resulting in 20% growth in adjusted trading profit after interest to £60.7m. Its EPRA net asset value per share was ahead 8.8% to £10.37, and it saw an underlying increase of 5.0% in its property valuation to £2.28bn.
Newspaper round-up
Jeremy Corbyn has committed his party to retaining the main elements of Britain’s relationship with the European Union after Brexit in a significant policy shift announced yesterday. The Labour leader and his top team will vote next week for a Commons motion calling for “full access” to the EU’s single market and “shared institutions and regulations” with Brussels. - The Times
Tesla's shareholders have offered a show of support for Elon Musk, rejecting a proposal to strip him of the chairman post, even after a string of issues at the electric car maker. Tesla said the proposal to force Mr Musk to hand over the chairman post, leaving him as just the company's chief executive, was voted down by a "supermajority" of shareholders. - Telegraph
Emissions tests that are impossible for carmakers to cheat show that almost all diesel car models launched in Europe since the “dieselgate” scandal remain highly polluting. The test uses a beam of light to analyse the exhaust plume of a car as it passes and automatic number plate recognition to link the measurement to a specific model. - Guardian
Fashion designer Kate Spade's suicide was 'not unexpected' according to her family who say she struggled for years with debilitating mental illness - but was too scared to seek help in case it hurt her brand. Spade, 55, killed herself in her Park Avenue home on Tuesday morning, leaving a heartbreaking suicide note addressed to her teenage daughter, telling her: 'I have always loved you'. - Daily Mail
US close
Wall Street trading finished the day as it started on Tuesday, settling in a mixed state, as investors digested a better-than-expected reading on the US services sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.06% at 24,799.98, while the S&P 500 added 0.07% to 2,748.80 and the Nasdaq 100 managed gains of 0.32% to 7,166.75.
Earlier, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had hit a fresh record high of 7,644.48.
Traders were also monitoring news out of Italy, with the new Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, having promised to take a hard line on the business of human trafficking with immigrants, and to push for the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia.
“The Dow Jones didn’t get up to much after the bell, content to squat on the 24800 it clambered its way back to on Monday,” said SpreadEx financial analyst Connor Campbell.
“The dollar fared better; the dual boost of better than forecast Markit and ISM services PMIs sent it 0.4% higher against the euro, while allowing cable to shrink its losses from 0.5% to 0.2%.”
On the economic front, the Institute for Supply Management revealed that its survey of businesses, excluding manufacturing, rose to 58.6 in May, from the 56.8 reported in April, which was close to a 13-year high.
Numbers over 50% are viewed as positive for the economy, while anything over 55% is seen as exceptional.
Job openings rose to a new high in April, according to the Labor Department, hitting 6.7m after the 6.63m recorded a month earlier.
The March figures were part of an upward revision from the initially reported 6.55m.