London pre-open: Stocks seen up ahead of services PMI
London stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday, taking their cue from a positive session on Wall Street as investors eyed the latest reading on the UK services sector.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 80 points higher at 5,833.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “The final UK services numbers for April is expected to be released later today, with the recent flash reading expected to be confirmed at a record low of 12.3, and a composite reading of 12.9.
“New car registrations for April are also expected to be similarly awful, following on from March’s 44.4% decline, with a similarly epic decline, given that no one could get out and car showrooms were all closed for the most part.
“On a more positive note the UK and US are set to sit down for trade talks later today by way of videoconference. These initial discussions are expected to last about two weeks, and are expected to cover a range of areas including trade in goods and services, as well as digital trade.
“While this week’s attention is expected to be largely focused on the data, and in particular Friday’s US payrolls report, European investors are also likely to have one eye on Karlsruhe this morning and the latest German constitutional court ruling on the European Central Banks asset purchase program.”
On the data front, Markit’s services PMI for April is at 0930 BST.
In corporate news, Carnival said it had extended the suspension of its P&O Cruises operations in Australia and New Zealand to August 31, in response to continuing travel restrictions due to the impact of Covid-19.
Low-cost airline Wizz air said April traffic plunged to almost zero in April as the coronavirus pandemic and government travel bans hammered passenger traffic.
Wizz reported a 97.1% fall in capacity to 104,956 seats and 97.6% plunge in passenger bookings to 78,389.
The company said it had operated 71 cargo flights with medical equipment as well as 28 rescue flights since the breakout of the pandemic.
Operations resumed from Wizz Air's bases in London Luton and Vienna on May 1 with flights to selected destinations.