London pre-open: Stocks set to edge higher with Sterling and US-China trade talks in focus
London listed stocks are set for a slightly higher start in what is scheduled to be an exceedingly busy week on every front, geopolitical, macroeconomic and corporate.
As of 0715 BST, the FTSE-100 was being called to edge higher by three points or 0.04% to 7,489.
Dominating the headlines was the new government's promise to accelerate preparations for a no-deal Brexit, leading analysts and traders to caution that renewed weakness in Sterling might be just around the corner.
"The pound could well come under further pressure this week, ahead of the latest Bank of England rate decision and inflation report," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
"[...] The ramping up of “no deal” rhetoric and preparations over the weekend by the new Prime Minister and his cabinet, is unlikely to help sentiment and likely to reinforce concerns that the UK is on course to leave the EU without a deal at the end of October."
Against that backdrop, financial markets were digesting the latest news out around the ongoing US-China stand-off on trade.
On Sunday, state-owned Chinese broadcaster, Xinhua, said the country had bought millions of tonnes of US soybeans and that its companies would continue to buy other agricultural commodities.
The move was portrayed by the People’s Daily come Monday as a "concrete" and "goodwill" step, but in parallel Chinese officials were blaming America for playing a hand in the Hong Kong protests and said they had found evidence of further illegal actions by US parcel delivery company FedEx as part of its ongoing investigation into the mistaken rerouting of Huawei Technologies packages sent to the US.
US and Chinese trade officials were set to take up trade talks again the next day.
Consumer credit and mortgage lending data for June were set for release at 0930 BST.
Later in the week, decisions on official interest rates were scheduled in the US, UK and Japan, followed by July non-farm payrolls data in the States, on Friday.
M&A in focus
Just Eat confirmed at the weekend that it was considering a tie-up with rival Takeaway.com. Between them, the two companies have a combined market value of roughly €8.6bn. Nonetheless, both companies said there could be no certainty that a final offer would be made nor on what terms. Any transaction would follow Takeaway's purchase of rival Delivery Hero's German operations last December, for approximately $1.0bn.
Lloyds of London insurer Hiscox reported interim profits at the upper end of its guidance range, with a 4.8% investment return offsetting higher claims volume. Pre-tax profits came in at $168m, up from $162.7m. The company earlier this month forecast first-half pre-tax profits of $150m - $170m (£119m - £135m). It added that the impact of events such as typhoon Jebi in Japan and hurricane Michael in Florida would impact reserve strengthening needed for those catastrophes of around $40m.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said on Monday that its ViiV Healthcare business has submitted a regulatory application to the European Medicines Agency for its HIV-prevention drug cabotegravir to be used alongside rilpivirine as the first ever monthly, injectable treatment for HIV.